The Putnam Gardens DREAM Update

March 2012

March programming was broken up by Harvard’s spring break, but the mentors managed to plan a

number of exciting activities on either side of their time away.

DREAM Programming:

3/2(6 mentors, 5 mentees): One-on-one programming including trips to the Museum of Science,

a dance performance, and explorations of Central Square.

3/9 (1 mentor, 1 mentee): Optional spring break DREAM.

3/23 (7 mentors, 3 mentees): Group programming, everyone went to Hoyt field to play basketball

and badminton, and create chalk art.

Community Collaboration:

Be Safe Training: Sandy Mervack, DREAM’s Development Director, Chad and I attended the

second of a two part training put on by Be Safe and sponsored by the Massachusetts Promise

Fellowship on March 30th. We discussed different messages we send within our organizations,

and ways to build strong organizational policies. We then wrote a social media policy for

DREAM and received feedback on it from other organizations in the training.

DREAM Office:

DREAM Staff retreat: Chad and I spent March 5th

and 6th

in Vermont with our northern co-

workers at an all staff retreat. It was a great time for us to reflect on the year so far, collaborate

on larger organizational wide projects, and plan for the future.

Massachusetts Promise Fellowship: DREAM has been granted an AmeriCorps Massachusetts

Promise Fellow for the upcoming academic year (August-July). I will be departing in August,

and the new Fellow will continue the work that I have done this year along with a couple of new

yearlong projects.

Regional Director: We continued our search for a Regional Director for the Boston DREAM

office.

Summer Community Interns: Hiring for our Summer Community Interns continued as well.

Keep DREAMing!

Jessica Stein

Program Empowerment Director

Massachusetts Promise Fellow/AmeriCorps

The DREAM Program, Inc. 41 Dearborn St.

Roxbury, MA 02119

(617) 699-8408

www.dreamprogram.org

April 18th, 2012