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Free Press Reporter Joel Banner Bird interviews mentee Jeannette Ndihokubwayo


the article below was featured in the Burlington Free Press on Saturday, December 13th 2008.

College Students Team with Young Neighbors


By Joel Banner Baird

A sign announced "FUN" as the destination of the blue bus that pulled into Franklin Square in Burlington on Friday evening.

In much larger letters, painted on the sides, "DREAM" describes the direction of its travel -- and the tour's sponsor: Winooski-based Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure and Mentoring Inc.

Steaming hot pans of pasta lay waiting in the Hunt Middle School cafeteria for at least two school kids and their mentors from St. Michael's College.

Waiting for the food line to thin, St. Michael's senior Kylie Edwards, 21, clowned around with Jeannette Ndihokubwayo, 9.

Edwards has been a part of the volunteer program for almost four years. During that time, she said, Jeannette has grown from a shy newcomer to Vermont (she was born in Tanzania) into an irrepressible extrovert.

"We pretty much just have fun," Jeannette said. "We cook. We play. We hang out."

"We're pretty tight," Edwards said.

Cailie Burns, 23, a St. Michael's graduate and former mentor, now coordinates the nonprofit's 12 community development programs in Vermont.

She said college volunteers not only pay weekly visits to their adopted housing developments, but also run adventure camps, extended summer sessions and academic seminars.

The organization specializes in face-to-face encounters, she said: DREAM partners with parents, foundations, municipal housing authorities and schools.

Although its mission -- to open marginalized neighborhoods to new possibilities -- sounds serious, giddiness rules the roost, Burns said.

Program Director Chad Butt, 24, a 2004 graduate of Dartmouth College (where DREAM began in 1999), agreed.

"Part of the appeal is getting out of the college bubble," he said. "Mentors get to hang out with little kids and be big kids."

DREAM recently became a member agency of the Chittenden and Rutland County United Ways and a number of mentors were featured in their 2008 Campaign Video! Take a look!

http://www.uwrutlandcounty.org/video.html

As a DREAM mentor for the last three years, I quickly noticed how polar differences between the Dartmouth Bubble of Hanover, NH and life in low-income housing in White River Junction. During my first year in DREAM, a student-led nonprofit mentoring organization ago that matches college students with children in disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout Vermont, I often wondered and was frustrated about why it was so difficult to simply communicate with the families. The answer was simple. Dartmouth students are online and by their cell phones 24-7. Parents & children in our communities are not, and some don’t even have active land lines. I later discovered that this fundamental lack of connectivity limits families’ opportunities for success in many other aspects of life, beyond being able to communicate with DREAM mentors. From job-searching online, to taking online classes and being able to trouble-shoot general problems such as simple car-repairs or finding local childcare, internet access offers endless possibilities in today’s world.

Recognizing this lack of connectivity was one of the inspirations for the year-long fellowship I am now working on full-time for the summer. The fellowship’s goal is to sustainably improve DREAM’s impact in the community in a few ways – by improving the involvement and communication between parents in the community, by improving parents’ access to social services Upper Valley, and by improving the leadership structure of DREAM so as to help mentors work with the children and their parents, thereby advancing DREAM’s mission of building stronger communities.

This summer, with my initial funding from the generous Class of ’82 Dartmouth Alumni, I was able to purchase four refurbished computer systems from WinCycle, and have installed them in the community center buildings in each complex. However, I soon discovered that providing internet service to these computers was going to be well beyond my budget for project materials. And so I started calling every service provider out there to see what I could find. That’s when Comcast came to the rescue, awarding DREAM a $1000 grant to be used toward technology expenses in the communities over the next year. This grant will go along way towards ensuring that the work I’ve begun this summer can be sustained over the next many years of DREAM’s existence. And for that I am incredibly thankful.

Brian Bensch
DREAM Mentor & Community Liaison

The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Ben & Jerry’s with a Spirit of Service Corporate Award, which recognizes exceptional participants in each of its programs and outstanding corporate and foundation partners. Ben & Jerry’s is being honored for its three year partnership with the DREAM program. Among other achievements, Ben & Jerry volunteers helped build a ropes course, construct a canoe rack and prepared an organic garden for participants of Camp DREAM.

When DREAM became an AmeriCorps program in 2007, thereby doubling its staff, the organization faced a lack of sufficient office space. Ben & Jerry’s provided the needed space. The entire company welcomed the staff to the building, offered organizational advice, and donated printing to DREAM’s annual appeal. The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation provided a $5,000 grant last year and included DREAM in the annual alternative holiday gift fair. As part of AmeriCorps Week, the Corporation for National and Community Service honored a handful of outstanding AmeriCorps members, alums, and corporate sponsors with Spirit of Service Awards in recognition of their contributions to national service.

Looking for fun? Check out our Annual Report to see the amazing adventures our mentors and kids take on.

2007 Annual Report

Report Reactions:

Hey guys, read through this over the weekend—its fantastic! You are all doing such a
great job.
-Scott Mishara

I just read the whole thing. Amazing. I am so happy for you that the program is thriving the way it is. Well done!
-Lt. Jennifer Morrison, Burlington Police

Very impressive report. WOW!
-Cpt. Mike Wineberg, Essex Rescue

I noticed at the end it talks about expanding outside of Vermont, should we start talking to our friends in other states about possibly heading up a program?
-Josh Nagle, Champlain Mentor

Wow. Amazing. Absolutely beautiful! Congratulations.
-Jon Harris



Franklin Square in Boston