The dream program, orchard gardens, march and april, 2014

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The Village Ment oring Organization

The Orchard Gardens DREAM Update March and April 2014

March was a slow month for the Orchard Gardens Program due to Spring Break, but rolled forward full steam ahead in April!

DREAM Programming:  3/8 and 3/15 (0 mentees, 0 mentors): No programming due to mentor Spring Break  3/22 (8 mentees, 12 mentors): The mentors and mentees participated in a photo scavenger hunt around the Orchard Garden community. Two new youth participated in this week’s activity!  3/29 (10 mentees, 18 mentors): The Program held its first Field Day of the semester! The kid’s had fun finally being able to play outside at the Esplanade!  4/5 (8 mentees, 10 mentors): The Program went to Ice Chips at the Agganis Arena (BU) to see a performance featuring Olympic figure skaters. The kid’s loved it and met the performers and coach! The tickets for this event were generously donated by Harvard University.  4/12 (10 mentees, 20 mentors): The Program participated in the Hindu festival of colors (Holi), where they chased each other with colored powder and water. Needless to say, all that participated had a great time and returned home brightly colored!  4/19 (8 mentees, 12 mentors): The mentors and mentees held a bake sale to raise funds for their program. The program raised over $400.00. A percentage of this bake sale was donated to the One Fund.  4/26 (10 mentees, 20 mentors) The Program held their last activity for the semester. The mentors and mentees watched “Frozen” and celebrated all they accomplished this past year.

Program Development:  Background Checks: Mentors recruited during the fall semester have officially completed the background check process and are cleared to pro gram with youth one-on-one.

Background checks for the spring recruits are under way.  New Youth: The program brought two new youth on board this month (March). The mentors are currently collecting names of interested youth to add to the waitlist and plan to bring them into the program next semester.

DREAM Office (March): 

Teen Program: Due to a variety of circumstances, we were unable to hold a teen wide activity on March 28th . Instead, we sent mentors out a list of possible activities they could

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do with their teen and encouraged them to contact me if they wanted help generating additional ideas. We also created a task force comprised of mentors, Katie, and myself to meet to plan our April event. The group decided on hosting a field day at the Esplanade with all teens on Friday, April 18th from 5-6:30pm.

South Boston Local Program: Recruitment for mentors at University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston continued this month. The mentoring program will officially pilot in fall 2014. I also met with the Director of the Tierney Learning Center to discuss how DREAM can provide for Old Colony youth during the summer.

Summer Intern Hiring: We began the process of interviewing for our two Summer Community Intern positions. Many qualified candidates have applied and we are excited to put together a great team for the summer.

100 Mentors: After almost five years in Boston, thanks to our mentors, staff, and partners, we have reached the milestone of 100 DREAM mentors in Boston! All of the DREAM Boston chapters continue to increase their numbers and strengthen their programs. We look forward to continued growth in the Boston area, reaching even more youth with DREAM's transformative programs.

DREAM Office (April): 

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Teen Program: The original teen event planned for April 18 th was postponed due to weather and scheduling conflicts. Instead, a group of female mentees and mentors from the Madison Park/Northeastern University Local Program came to the DREAM Office for a screening of “The Halls: Class Dismissed,” a web-series produced by the Boston Public Health Commission focusing on teen dating relationships. The group watched all eight episodes and the screening was intermixed with discussion about the heavy topics included in the show.

School Engagement Focus Group: Katie conducted a school engagement focus group with seven youth in our Somerville Housing Authority/Tufts University Local Program.

The grades of participants ranged from 4 th to 6th . Results from this focus group will be included in the composite analysis the Mass Promise Fellowship will publish based on the data from all 40 host sites.

South Boston Local Program: Recruitment for mentors at University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston continued this month. Already recruited mentors have been working with Jason to table at the campus and recruit more mentors. The mentoring program will officially pilot in fall 2014.

Summer Intern Hiring: We finalized our hiring for our Summer Community Interns and have two amazing students onboard and excited for the summer. Throughout the month of May, Katie and I will be planning out the calendar of DREAM summer activities.

Keep DREAMing!

Jason Desrosier Program Director