The DREAM Program, Willowbrook, Quarter 4, 2012-2013

dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram

The Village Mentoring Organization

Willowbrook DREAM Quarterly Report June-August 2013 Greetings from DREAM! Summer brought warm weather and plenty of DREAMing this quarter. Youth participated in activities in their community, trips to nearby attractions, and sessions at Camp DREAM. They are sad for summer to end, but excited for the mentors to return in the fall. Here is a summary of Willowbrook DREAM happenings from the summer: Highlights from the quarter include:  Four Willowbrook youth attended sessions at Camp DREAM, where they swam, gardened, played games, and met new friends from other Local Programs!  Two Willowbrook teens attended the Time of Wonder sailing trip in Maine.  The Willowbrook Local Program celebrated the end of summer with an afternoon of group games, snacks, and crafts.

Weekly Activities with Youth:  DREAM youth had an ice cream party to celebrate the start of summer. During the party, youth brainstormed ideas for summer activities.  Youth played group games in the community center.  DREAM youth learned about insulation during an experiment to see who could keep an ice cube from melting the longest.  DREAMers took two trips to Willow Park, where Summer Community Intern Britaney challenged them to travel around the whole playground structure without touching the mulch below.  Willowbrook youth enjoyed several trips to the pool at the Bennington Recreation Center.  Youth cooled off with a trip to the Dairy Bar to get ice cream.  DREAMers ate breakfast together.  Willowbrook youth made salsa together and played group games.  Five Willowbrook youth spent an afternoon baking delicious cookies and brownies.  The group enjoyed splashing around and swimming at Lake Paran.  The garden interns at Bennington College’s Purple Carrot Farm led a day of planting seeds, learning about the garden, and picking some beans.  Craft Day was a hit with a group of Willowbrook youth, who painted with watercolors, learned to make lanyards, and tie-dyed t-shirts!

Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org

Special Events for Youth and Mentors:  At the End of Summer Celebration, the group played games outside before venturing inside for some delicious treats and more craft activities, including making animal key chains and designing buttons.  Five teens from four Local Programs participated in a four-day sailing trip with Time of Wonder sailing in Harpsell, Maine. They learned to sail the boat, went swimming and kayaking, and made friends with their fellow sailors.  Eight teens and four chaperones took part in the third annual College Road Trip through a grant from the Children’s Trust Fund. Over eight days, they visited seven colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Along the way, they took time for adventures at Camel Beach Water Park, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, and Central Park. The teens learned about the college admissions process, asked questions about college life, and had some adventures along the way.

Capacity Building and Fundraising:  This year’s Summer Appeal raised $21,079 from 96 donors. Thank you to all who supported DREAM’s summer programs!  DREAM is continuing to work toward expanding to new cities and is close to launching an initial site in Philadelphia! Thanks to more than 160 individual donors, DREAM is three-quarters of the way to our fundraising goal for this launch. In addition, DREAM has been working closely with a potential housing partner on starting a Local Program at one of its sites!  City Market selected DREAM for their Change for Local Non-Profits program. For each reusable bag customers used in August, City Market donated 5 cents to DREAM.  With a grant from the Vermont Women's Trust Fund, DREAM hired a program coordinator to work with three DREAM Ambassadors on a young women's leadership project. The young women surveyed New American families residing at Elm Street in Winooski and at Riverside in Burlington to determine what, if anything, they knew about DREAM, if their youth were involved, and what questions they had. The young women asked the survey questions and provided translation for the families. From their efforts, DREAM has created a brochure translated into Somali to help parents of our refugee youth better understand what DREAM does, and the ambassadors will translate at a community meeting in the future.

Mentor Training and Workshops:  This year’s team of 16 Summer Community Interns from across Vermont and the greater Boston area participated in a three-day orientation in Burlington and at Camp DREAM, where Camp staff joined them. Session topics included managing a budget and fundraising; DREAM’s Mentor Boundaries, Transportation Guidelines, & Child Abuse Reporting Procedures; and child behavior management. Interns also took part in team building activities, went on a night hike, and learned more about the communities in which they would plan and lead enriching summer activities for DREAM youth!

Camp:  Camp DREAM celebrated another wonderful summer! This year, Camp welcomed 67 campers, 8 teen counselors-in-training, 6 staff members, and several volunteers over five sessions. Of the 67 campers, 21 attended Camp DREAM for the first time.  During these sessions, campers and counselors swam, canoed, sailed, hiked, built fires, took nature walks, ate healthy and delicious food, watched and performed in skits, played oodles of games, discussed serious issues like bullying, made new friends, and learned more about themselves, their communities, and their environment!  This summer marked the inauguration of the Camp Store, where campers could use their good behavior to purchase small but exciting items, such as DREAM sunglasses.  Three Camp staff served as AmeriCorps members through the Vermont Youth Development Corps (VYDC) AmeriCorps State program. Matt Karkut, Zak Killian, and Erin Knight served respectively as the Adventure Program Coordinator, Lifeguard/Lead Counselor, and Local Foods Program Coordinator/Iron Chef.

Alumni Involvement:  Of the 15 mentees who were seniors this year, 11 graduated from high school and joined DREAM’s Alumni Organization. One more expects to receive his diploma in December.  Paul Espina, an Alumni Organization member, member of DREAM's Board of Directors, former mentor, and Camp DREAM enthusiast received a Myra Kraft Community MVP Award by the Patriots Charitable Foundation. The award recognized Paul's many years of amazing volunteer service and came with a $5,000 gift to DREAM.

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Alumni Sandy Mervak, Paul Espina, and Andrew Lassiter each volunteered for at least one session at Camp DREAM. Laura Alger was the second mentee alumna to be a counselor at Camp DREAM. Kate Cahalane, an Elm Street/University of Vermont alumna, joined the office as a Program Empowerment VISTA through the Vermont Youth Tomorrow (VYT) AmeriCorps VISTA program.

Office:  Three DREAM teens joined Executive Director Mike Loner, Camp Director Ashleigh Ellsworth-Keller, and the Burlington HUD Field Office Director on Channel 17/Town Meeting TV for a televised interview.  DREAM said goodbye to Kate Piniewski, Britt Wedenoja, and Zahra Ohldin, who finished their AmeriCorps terms this quarter.  Staff welcomed two new AmeriCorps VISTA members who are serving through Vermont Youth Tomorrow (VYT). Kate Cahalane and Mark Hengstler will be supporting DREAM’s Local Programs in Windsor and Chittenden counties. A third AmeriCorps VISTA member, Alison Siegel, joins them for her second year in southern Vermont.  Two new AmeriCorps State members, Katie Purcell and Asha Carter, joined DREAM’s Boston office. Katie and Asha are serving with DREAM’s Local Programs in Boston through the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship (MPF) and Ambassadors of Mentoring/Highland Street Corps Ambassadors through Mass Mentoring Partnership (MMP) respectively.  The new AmeriCorps members from Vermont and Boston joined forces in Burlington for orientation, during which they learned about DREAM’s program model, DREAM’s technological systems, and how to support Local Programs.

Thank you for your ongoing support of DREAM. If you would like additional or more detailed information, please contact me by email or by phone. You can always look back at past reports or other programs’ reports by going to: http://dreamprogram.org/mentor-program/vermont/local-program-reports.

DREAM big, Ali Siegel Program Empowerment Director alison@dreamprogram.org 802.681.3982