dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram
The Village Mentoring Organization
Salmon Run DREAM Quarterly Report March-May 2016 Greetings from DREAM! Salmon Run mentors enjoyed the spring semester together, taking full advantage of the warmer weather. At the end of April they said goodbye for the year, but mentees are excited for Summer DREAM to begin!
Highlights from the Quarter Include:
Mentors enjoyed a week off for spring break, but were excited to return to DREAM for fun activities with their mentees! DREAM staff from Vermont, Boston, and Philadelphia gathered for our annual Staff Retreat. Staff engaged in several productive discussions on how we can best support our programs. Salmon Run collaborated with Elm Street and Riverside for their annual event Spring Thing. They tie-dyed, played soccer, had a huge game of tug-o-war, and let mentees pie their mentors! Salmon Run went to Ethan Allen Park and had a barbeque for their culminating event! For the last Friday of the year around 100 mentors and mentees from all three UVM programs gathered at North Beach for an end of the year/senior celebration. Everyone had a blast playing yard games, tie-dying, getting their faces painted, and eating lots of yummy food! Salmon Run DREAMers celebrated graduating mentors Gabi Kaplan, Caroline Gay, and Sara Burrous.
Weekly Activities with Youth:
Mentors took mentees to the YMCA to swim. Salmon Run enjoyed an afternoon of ice skating at Leddy Park with mentors and mentees from the Champlain Birchwood program! The group went to the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center and then enjoyed some time playing outside at Battery Park. Mentors and mentees participated in an egg drop experiment. Salmon Run DREAM collaborated with UVM’s co-ed service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, for some Earth Day activities including planting flowers and a campus clean-up!
Special Events for Children and Mentors:
On Saturday, April 2nd, 25 teens between the ages of 13 to 14 from all over Vermont came together for a day of service, rock-climbing, and fun! 13 mentors as well as the DREAM staff and AmeriCorps members joined the teens for the day. The teens were so excited to connect with old friends and to make new ones! The day started at Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont where teens, mentors, staff and AmeriCorps members participated in service projects. After that, they journeyed to Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center in Quechee, Vermont, where many teens pushed themselves to
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org
try rock-climbing for the first time. Others had done it before, and continued to practice their skills. DREAM is excited that one of our teens will be received a full scholarship to and will be attending the MedQuest Program this summer. The Medquest Health Careers Exploration Program is a rigorously structured program designed for students who would like to learn more about career opportunities available in the health care field. It is a coed, residential, four-day program held on the University of Vermont (UVM) campus. Students will participate in interactive presentations and hands-on workshops. They will travel to hospitals and community health centers, take part in job shadowing experiences, explore and strengthen skills and resources for health career development, increase their comfort in health care and college environments, interact with health care professionals and students, and much more. UVM Health Professions students help staff the program. More info about Medquest: http://www.cvahec.org/programs/high-schoolstudent/med-quest/
Capacity Building and Fundraising:
This Spring we raised an additional $125K for Camp construction from two major foundations. Construction on our bathhouse continues, and construction on a large lodge will begin this summer. DREAM also launched our summer fundraising drive with a goal of $100,00 to support out summer programs, such as Camp DREAM, community activities and field trips, multi-day sailing trips in Maine, a college road trip, and more!
Mentor Training and Workshops:
Mentors attended a Suicide Prevention Training with Charlotte McCorkel from the Howard Center. They learned prevention, intervention, and postvention techniques.
Camp:
This summer we are welcoming an NCCC crew to help with construction at Camp DREAM. NCCC, or National Civilian Community Corps, is a branch of AmeriCorps. The NCCC crews travel around the country working on projects for a few months at a time. Our crew will arrive in June and will work with us through August.
Office: This quarter, DREAM hired 15 Summer AmeriCorps volunteers through Vermont Youth
Development Core to run programming in our Vermont Communities. 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,
Kelsea Moulton Program Empowerment Director VYT AmeriCorps VISTA kelsea@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979