dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram
The Village Mentoring Organization
Birchwood DREAM Quarterly Report Quarter 1 September – November 2016 Greetings from DREAM! The Birchwood DREAM program has finished up another wonderful semester of activities. Here is a summary of all the Birchwood DREAM happenings from the last quarter.
Highlights from the quarter include: • • •
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After Champlain College began classes on August 29th, mentors and mentees were reunited at their first DREAM Friday on September 9th. Veteran mentors, Alayna Masker and Deborah Kosnar led the group as co chairs this semester! Birchwood DREAM made a big recruitment push at the beginning of the quarter and accepted six new mentors! All new mentors completed DREAM’s Boundaries and Guidelines Training. In an effort to engage teens in programming, Birchwood DREAM has been splitting programming into age groups. This quarter, the older mentees were given more agency to choose their own programming!
Weekly Programming: • •
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Birchwood DREAM spent their first Friday in the community catching up from the summer and setting expectations and goals for the upcoming semester! Younger mentees led mentors in a nature walk around their neighborhood and played outdoor games while the older mentees traveled to Burlington to go for a walk downtown! Mentees traveled to campus to compete in a scavenger hunt around campus and play outdoor games! Younger mentees spent an afternoon in the community center doing arts and crafts while older mentees took a walk on Church St with mentors. Birchwood DREAM spent two Fridays playing games in the Champlain College gym! After one of their gym visits, the whole had dinner together in the cafeteria. Mentors and mentees celebrated Halloween a few days early in the community center. The group created and ate Halloween themed snacks such as ghost tootsie rolls and spider donut holes with pretzel legs! Birchwood DREAM spent a DREAM Friday playing games at the waterfront and doing a scavenger hunt on Church Street. With the support of DREAM’s Teen Futures Coordinator, mentors and mentees cooked a meal for COTS, The Committee on Temporary Shelter. One Friday, younger mentees played games in the gym while the older mentees went bowling with their mentors
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org