The History of DREAM

DREAM was founded in January of 1999 and run entirely by volunteers from Dartmouth College and the nearby Templeton Court Apartments (in White River Junction) until November of 2001 when it became an independent non-profit organization. Today, DREAM is a statewide program, with a central office and a growing number of local program sites throughout Vermont.

The program traces its origins to 1998 when the Vermont State Housing Authority became the host of an AmeriCorps position through the Vermont Community Stewardship Program. Kathryn Ross, a 1995 graduate of Dartmouth College, became the first AmeriCorps member to fill this position and was charged with the duty of providing after-school programming for the close to 100 children living at the Templeton Court Apartments, a Section 8 housing development.

Kathryn soon connected with students attending Dartmouth, who began volunteering with the children at Templeton. The volunteers organized themselves into a weekly mentoring program that became known as DREAM (Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure, and Mentoring). By May of 1999, the program consisted of more than 30 mentoring pairs. That spring, the entire group undertook an ambitious trip to Boston. DREAM's infamous yellow and blue t-shirts were born on that day as a safety precaution for keeping track of the 60 participants on their first big trip together.

In the summer of 2000, five mentors and the oldest ten children in DREAM planned and raised the money for a two-week trip to Colorado. The group went horseback riding, whitewater rafting, spelunking, exploring the Great Sand Dunes, and hiking in the Rockies -- and laid the foundation for DREAM's High Adventure program.

The following spring, the oldest 30 children and their mentors took a four-day trip to Washington, D.C. while the younger DREAMers took a day-trip to Montreal. Everyone in the Washington, D.C. group was able to shake hands with President Bush, and he even posed for a picture holding a DREAM shirt (check it out on our Famous DREAMers page)!

Many of the original mentors in DREAM graduated in 2001, and two of the graduates decided to found a non-profit organization to support the existing DREAM program and expand to other colleges and low-income communities. In the fall of 2001, The DREAM Program, Inc. was incorporated in the state of Vermont, and DREAM received its 501(c)(3) status in the spring of 2002.

That same spring, The DREAM Program, Inc. expanded to its first new local program site with students at the University of Vermont and families from the Elm Street Apartments in Winooski, Vermont. There was an enthusiastic response from the students at UVM and members of the Elm Street community. That summer, The DREAM Program, Inc. coordinated its first full-fledged High Adventure program, modeled after the earlier trip in 2000 to Colorado.

In 2003, DREAM began a new program aimed at addressing the need for summer activities for DREAM children while their mentors were away on summer break. DREAM placed a paid intern at each of the neighborhoods working with DREAM. The program proved very successful and continues today as all eight housing communities will have a summer intern for 2006.

From here, The DREAM program, Inc. will continue to expand the number of local DREAM program sites around Vermont (visit all our local programs here), to provide a growing number of services and opportunities for the children and families in its care, and to ever-improve its program model and implementation. Please explore the rest of our site to see how far we've come. and never cease to DREAM!