Program highlight: Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

Guest blogger Joceline Fidalgo is a Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit community-based planning and organizing program rooted in the Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. Formed in 1984, residents of the Dudley Street area came together to revive their neighborhood, which was devastated by arson, disinvestment, neglect and redlining practices.

The mission of DSNI is to empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create and control a vibrant, diverse and high-quality neighborhood in collaboration with community partners. DSNI focuses on three strategic areas to help revitalize the neighborhood: community economic development, leadership development and collaboration, and youth opportunities and development.

In an effort to offer Dudley area youth better opportunities, DSNI piloted its first mentoring program, Stronger Leaders Brighter Future. The program officially started during National Mentoring Month (January) 2013 with a kick-off Celebration on Jan. 12. I organized the fun and creative event where mentors and mentees had the chance to meet each other and get to know one another while participating in a range of activities and eating lunch together. There were silly games, ice-breakers, team-building exercises as well as a general overview of the mentoring program. 12 mentors and seven mentees spent about three hours together learning about each other and the mentoring program.

The celebration was a great experience where mentors and mentees were able to interact before being matched. At the end of the event, all the mentors and mentees were asked to fill out a form which included questions around their interests and asked them if there was anyone they felt a particular connection to or could imagine being matched up with. These forms and my observations during the event helped us make 14 matches to date! The event taught me the importance of making sure that all mentors and mentees feel like they are part of a larger group of matches. When the matches are comfortable with each other, I believe they are more likely to reach out to each other for resources and tips and not rely solely on the program coordinator for support.

After just a few weeks of meeting with their mentors, youth have shared that having a mentor has given them the opportunity to get to know an adult from the community on a personal level and feel more supported on a daily basis. Once matches have had more time to develop their relationship, youth will begin working with their mentors on identifying goals they would like to achieve and setting up a plan on how to achieve them.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse & community leaders celebrate National Mentoring Month

As part of our 20 Challenges in 2012 initiative, we launched the Mayors for Mentoring campaign to engage mayors from around Massachusetts in raising awareness of the need for more mentors in their city; recognizing local mentoring programs and their participants; and encouraging  ways for individuals and communities to get involved in mentoring in their city.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse is one of our Mayors for Mentoring, and he helped celebrate National Mentoring Month in Holyoke in January.

On January 28, he and more than 50 supporters of mentoring joined Mass Mentoring Partnership and MMP Board Member Ann Burke at the Holyoke Health Center to celebrate National Month. The event was moderated by Ann, who is the Vice President of the Economic Development Council of Western MA.

Mayor Morse proclaimed January as Holyoke Mentoring Month. He also spoke about the personal impact mentoring has had on his life and why mentoring is vital to the health of the Holyoke community.

“Mentoring programs are a proven and powerful community strategy that

Mayor Alex Morse

impacts the wide variety of critical social issues facing the young people of the City of Holyoke,” he said. “Whether they are faced with academic challenges, the risk of teen pregnancy, or violence and bullying, students who are invested in a high-quality mentoring relationship are not only likely to experience an increase both in self-esteem and a hope for the future, but they are provided with the skills they need to rise above the pressures of adolescence that so many of our young people face on a regular basis.”

Paul McCraven, Senior Vice President Community Development with First Niagara – one of the key supporters of mentoring in Western MA – spoke about their investment in mentoring through their “Mentoring Matters” program, which includes support for the pilot of the Dean Technical High School Career Pathways Mentoring Program, which assists mentees with workforce development. The Dean Tech program was developed in partnership with MMP, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, Dean Technical High School, and the Holyoke Health Center. Paul also announced that their support will continue in 2013 through a grant that is focused solely on innovative projects and program enhancements in Holyoke.

Mentees from Dean Tech Career Pathways Mentoring

The Dean Tech mentees were in attendance and acknowledged by George Barton, Director of Business Development with the Holyoke Health Center. Eileen Cavanaugh, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, emphasized the importance of career exploration and spoke of how innovative and replicable this mentoring model is. Youth who are exposed to different career choices and who learn important workforce skills translate to better prepared and more skillful workers in the future.

Ashley Ewick, a mentor and staff member at Girls Inc. of Holyoke, shared her perspective on mentoring’s impact on her and the small group of girls she works with. The Girls Inc. small-group mentoring program serves girls between 11-15 and includes several hours of the Girls Inc. curriculum, which includes financial literacy, teen pregnancy prevention and community leadership.

The celebration concluded with an inspiring personal story of mentoring from Rich Greif, MMP Director of Marketing and Public Awareness. He also discussed the many ways individuals, schools and businesses can support mentoring and urged everyone to think about how they can invest in mentoring in their communities.

Sarah Shugrue is the Manager of Western MA Partnerships with Mass Mentoring Partnerships. To learn more about mentoring in Holyoke contact her at 413-262-1227 or sshugrue@massmentors.org

Brockton mayor supports mentoring

As part of our 20 Challenges in 2012 initiative, we launched the Mayors for Mentoring campaign to engage mayors from around Massachusetts in raising awareness of the need for more mentors in their city; recognizing local mentoring programs and their participants; and encouraging  ways for individuals and communities to get involved in mentoring in their city.

Brockton Mayor Linda M. Balzotti, who was nominated to participate by Old Colony Y Big Sister Big Brother, was one of the first to participate.

“Mentors have the unique opportunity to shape the futures of young men and women in communities across the Commonwealth,” Mayor Balzotti said. ”They play a vital part in awakening the spark of potential that these youth might not always see in themselves. This is the work of mentors in Brockton and everywhere, and our futures are bright because of them.”

Mayor Balzotti helped promote mentoring in Brockton throughout National Mentoring Month. As she has each year since its inception, she attended the 5th Annual Mentor Recruitment Rally in Brockton on Jan. 31 at the Shaw’s Center. She also hosts a cable show, “Our City,” and had representatives from Big Sister Big Brother on to promote the event.

“The mentor rally plays an important role in connecting those interested in mentoring with available opportunities throughout our city,” said Mayor Balzotti. “I’ve been proud to take part in this annual event to encourage our partners to become mentors and to celebrate those individuals who have given their time to Brockton’s youth.”

If you’d like to nominate your mayor as a Mayor for Mentoring, or if you have questions about the campaign, please contact Elena Sokolow-Kaufman, manager of government & field resources at eskaufman@massmentors.org or 617.695.2476.

Business helps local youth thrive

January was National Mentoring Month, and we are continuing to highlight a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s post is from Rachael J. Chambers, Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring at For Kids Only. It is a profile of a mentor from Ignite Award winner DePuy Synthes of Johnson & Johnson.

The field of mentoring, including select supporters, was celebrated at Youth Mentoring Day at the State House on Jan. 16.  DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson was the winner of the business Ignite Award, and was nominated by TASC (Taunton Area School Career) for their support of mentoring. DePuy Synthes has been involved with TASC since the organization’s inception in 1995.  They continue to supply TASC with mentors from a pool of several Johnson & Johnson companies located in Raynham, Massachusetts.

Mentor Mary Ann Jablonski is a Johnson & Johnson employee who has been a dedicated mentor for six years through TASC. She says, “I enjoy meeting such interesting and diverse students each year and seeing them gain a deeper understanding of what different careers mean.  I love seeing the ‘light go on’ when they find the perfect fit for themselves. It’s also been fun to learn along with my mentee about career options that hadn’t been exposed to myself directly before, such as video animation and event planning.”

Although her passion and commitment towards mentoring has been rewarding, Mary has faced a few challenges as a working professional.  She says, “It’s hard to find the time to mentor and still get my ‘day job’ done, especially with business travel that can’t always be arranged around mentoring plans.  I try to be as transparent as I can with my mentees and let them know ahead of time this may happen and it usually works out OK.”

With so much experience in mentoring, Mary has learned the importance of communication and the building of trust with her mentees.  They understand her need of flexibility so she can commit to the required mentoring sessions.  She is an example of a mentor who is committed to both her professional career and time with mentees.  There are many people like Mary at DePuy Synthes who have dedicated their time to mentoring. Without the support from DePuy Synthes and Johnson & Johnson, Mary and others like her would not be able to balance their career and commit to volunteering.

It is wonderful to know that businesses are making a difference in our communities by encouraging employees to mentor or volunteer.  DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson exemplifies a business that makes a difference in their communities. Congratulations on their Ignite Award!

The Dream of DREAM: a mentoring program grounded in reality

January is National Mentoring Month, and we are highlighting a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s post is from Synda Mahan, Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring at Cambridge Family & Children’s Service. It is a profile on Ignite Award winner Chad Butt from The DREAM program.

On January 16, 2013, Chad Butt was awarded the Ignite Award from Mass Mentoring Partnership. The award honors a mentoring program staff member who has demonstrated a commitment to motivating and inspiring people to become advocates of mentoring, and has gone above and beyond to advance mentoring in Massachusetts.

Chad attended Dartmouth College, dreaming of becoming a teacher. It was there that he found DREAM (Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure, and Mentoring), a mentoring program that empowers youth from affordable housing neighborhoods to recognize their options, make informed decisions, and achieve their dreams. This mentoring program was the biggest part of Chad’s college experience.

Since Chad’s parents were both teachers, in his home the dinnertime conversation centered on how his parents were affected by the students in their classrooms. These discussions instilled in Chad a strong desire to create sustainable experiences that benefit others.  That long-rooted desire prompted him to join DREAM as a mentor because he wanted to “get out of the college bubble,” make a difference in people’s lives, and help others have the experience he had in college. DREAM made such an impact on Chad that 13 years later he has his dream job as its program director.

DREAM began in 1998, several years before Chad’s arrival at Dartmouth College. At that time, an AmeriCorps volunteer had been given the task of providing after-school programming to 100 children living in a nearby affordable housing development. The volunteer connected with students at Dartmouth College, and the students organized themselves into a weekly mentoring program for the kids that became known as DREAM.

Today, DREAM mentors recruit other mentors, with well-established DREAM programs having much more interest than space for new mentors.  Those wishing to become mentors come from different majors and have different hobbies, but they are brought together by their mutual excitement in working with youth.

The excitement for the mentee starts early and is demonstrated in the matching process. It starts when a potential mentor asks a child, “Can I be your mentor?”  This empowers the youth and gives choices to kids who often have little decision-making power in their own lives. In essence, these kids are being told by adults that, “I think you’re awesome and I want to hang out with you!” which is a cool experience for a child to have!

DREAM uses a “Village Mentoring Model” where college students are matched in a one-on-one relationship with a child. Matches meet simultaneously in a group setting either at the college or in the community.  In addition to the numerous benefits of mentoring, these kids are also exposed to a college setting.  This unique twist on mentoring helps to demystify college and makes it a place that these kids can envision themselves being in the future.

DREAM has a ‘dream big’ mentality and encourages youth to pick a goal and see it through to the end. Participants in their High Adventure program have set goals as lofty as taking group trips to California – and most impressively, they’ve turned these dreams into reality! But because these are goals chosen by the kids in the program, the kids also get to try their hand at the finer details of such endeavors. They research and create itineraries of daily activities. They plan the transportation and the meals. This is their project and through this effort these kids realize, “If I work towards something, I can achieve it.”

As the youth achieved their goals, Chad realized that DREAM had to adapt and grow. Eventually, DREAM expanded to 13 colleges in Vermont under Chad’s direction. It was at that point that Chad realized the need for DREAM to establish a new office.  Boston, with its numerous colleges, proved to be a promising choice to continue sharing his vision of DREAM being a resource to youth and their families. DREAM has also purchased fifty acres of property along Metcalf Pond in Fletcher, VT, the perfect location for Camp DREAM. The camp has running water, an organic garden, a 9-hole Frisbee golf course, a kitchen, a dock which supports water activities, two lean-tos, and a 2-story tree house complete with a fire pole!

Camp DREAM now focuses on self-reliance, strengthening of interpersonal skills, building of friendships, and environmental education. These goals are also reflected in management style of the camp: when DREAM realized it would be cheaper to buy a used school bus and convert it to run on old vegetable oil for field trips, that’s precisely what happened and Chad learned to drive it!

Chad says that one of the best parts of his time with DREAM was being present as DREAM achieved its dream:  this past school year, a former mentee entered college and joined DREAM as a mentor.  It means a lot to Chad that DREAM has seen a mentoring cycle come full circle.