The Putnam Gardens DREAM Update

January 2012 This month has been quiet in the office with the majority of the mentors heading home for break. We spent the month processing intake paperwork and preparing for a great second semester. At the end of January we welcomed back the mentors and are excited to see what they have planned for the spring! Program Development:

• 1/31 Co-chair Meeting: Upon their return to Boston I met with the new Putnam Gardens Co-chairs to help them plan out their semester, and discuss techniques for successfully integrating their new committees into the structure of their DREAM Program. They are both great leaders and will help push Putnam DREAM to the next level.

Community Collaboration:

• 1/19 Mentoring Day at the Statehouse: Chad and I both attended Mass Mentoring Partnership’s annual mentoring day at the statehouse. We heard about the great mentoring work happening across the commonwealth, the importance of funding mentoring on the state level, and were able to network with other Boston organizations that we can team up with in the future.

• 1/23-Mass Mentoring 2012 Youth Mentoring Forum: I attended Mass Mentoring’s annual Youth Mentoring panel which explored the past, present, and future of mentoring in Massachusetts. It was great to hear about how far we have come, and hear ideas for growing and improving the mentoring movement.

• Shamrock Dreams: Through Mass Mentor and the Boston Celtics, DREAM has continued to receive tickets to Celtics games and had some pretty incredible seats. It is a great opportunity for matches to take in a game and spend time together outside of Friday programming. This month we had 2 matches attend games.

DREAM Office:

• MLK Day of Service and Leadership: Chad and I participated in Northeastern University and The Massachusetts Promise Fellowship’s MLK Day of Service and Leadership on January 23rd. We took part in a number of different workshops and service projects with participants from across Greater Boston.

Keep DREAMing! Jessica Stein Program Empowerment Director Massachusetts Promise Fellow/AmeriCorps

February 15th, 2012

The DREAM Program, Inc. 41 Dearborn St. Boston, MA 02119 (617) 699-8408 tel www.dreamprogram.org