The Putnam Gardens DREAM Update

October 2012

The Putnam Gardens program had a great month of October full of fun Friday activities.

DREAM Programming:

10/5 (8 mentees, 7 mentors): The group headed back to Harvard for a scavenger hunt around

campus. It was a great way for the newer mentees to get a feel for where the mentors go to

school.

10/12 (6 mentees, 8 mentors): The mentees were able to choose between playing basketball

in the gym and going to the Museum of Science.

10/19 (7 mentees, 9 mentors): All the mentors and mentees hung out on campus and wrote

letter to youth in Spain that Kiernan, one of the mentors, had taught while she was aboard

last Spring Semester. After a short lesson on time zones the mentees were on board to write

letters instead of just calling or video chatting with the class.

10/26 (7 mentees, 5 mentors): The majority of the group spent the afternoon carving

pumpkins and jumping in leaf piles. One mentee went with her mentor to cook dinner with

her Korean class.

Programming Opportunities:

Celtics Game: Through Mass Mentor and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, one

match was able to attend the Celtics game on the 21st. It was his first Celtics game and was

a great way for him in his mentor to strengthen their mentoring relationship.

Program Development:

Making up missed programming: As with all college students DREAM mentors

occasionally have schedule conflicts and can’t make a Friday afternoon of programming.

The Harvard mentors have done an outstanding job this semester ensuring that their mentee

still attends Friday programming and that they meet outside of Friday that week to still have

time together. During these outside of Friday programming time matches have attended

plays, cooked dinner, and grabbed a bite to eat in a dining hall.

Becoming part of the college: The mentors will be applying to become a recognized student

group by the Public Service Network of Harvard in the Spring Semester. They are using the

time this Fall Semester to complete the application so it is ready to submit when they return

from winter break.

New mentee: The mentors brought on a new youth this month who has participated in

summer programming on a consistent basis over the last two summers and was ecstatic to be

in school-year DREAM!

The DREAM Program, Inc. 41 Dearborn St.

Roxbury, MA 02119

(617) 699-8408

www.dreamprogram.org

November 15, 2012

Community Collaboration:

Massachusetts Mentoring Partnership Summit: On October 17th

Rachel Lieberman attended

the first ever MMP Summit at the Bank of America building.

DREAM Office:

Massachusetts Promise Fellowship (MPF) Education Surveys: MPF is working to collect

data about how youth (grades 4-12) view school and if their participation in DREAM affects

their opinions. The majority of youth in the Putnam Gardens program have completed the

MPF Education survey. This survey has also served as a great tool to help DREAM update

the database which lists schools that our youth attend. In conjunction with the surveys, focus

groups were conducted to learn more about subjects in which the youth were interested,

levels of motivation while at school, personalized attitudes about school, and future plans for

their academic careers.

DREAM’s BIG Night Out: DREAM's Boston Finance Committee held a DREAM's Big

Night Out, a fundraising event, at the Rattlesnake on the night of October 18th

. Over 60

people came out and the night was a huge success.

Keep DREAMing!

Chad Butt

Program Director