Mentoring info sessions!

WE ARE HAVING TWO EVENTS NEXT WEEK!

There will be a mentor orientation for those of you who would like to work in the Gorham Schools next MONDAY, October 6th.
It will be at Gorham Middle School, and we will be meeting at 6pm (we will have pizza, worry not!)
Please come to that if you're interested in the tutoring opportunity at Gorham High School.

For all other interested mentors and tutors, there will be another, less formal info session WEDNESDAY, October 8th at 5:30 in the Husky Hut! Come for pizza and to chat me up about our available programs!

Come be a Big Brother/Big Sister, work with STRIVE, or within the Portland and Gorham school systems!

Hope to see you there!
Amanda

Let's Make Things Happen!

HELLOOOO!

Fall is here, and it’s time to get involved!

• Coastal Clean-Up
• Mentoring: Spotlight on STRIVE U and Reiche
• Tutoring
• Free Press article
• Dinner at Ronald McDonald House
  

The Coastal Clean-Up is THIS SATURDAY from 1-5pm at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. We’re going to collect and catalog trash so that the environmental group can see what’s being thrown where!

We still have room available, so contact community@usm.maine.edu if you want to join!

We are ALWAYS looking for mentors!

I know I wrote about it before, but I want to highlight two special mentoring programs:

STRIVE U is a program for emotionally and physically disabled 15-24 year olds. They are looking for mentors to come hang out with their students a few hours a week. This extra time commitment is spent usually doing an hour of schoolwork and then an hour of fun! Students love to play board games or basketball, or just talk to you! The students at STRIVE U are mainstreamed as much as possible, but sometimes they just want to connect with kids their own age. If you can't commit to mentoring, they have social events every Friday night and are always looking for volunteers to come hang out!

Reiche School on Brackett Street in Portland has an innovative mentoring program that needs students! This after-school program puts mentors with small groups of Reiche students at a time. Over the weeks, the kids form a strong bond with their mentor while they do homework, play games, or other activities. This program has a unique teaching opportunity: mentors are encouraged to teach a short lesson on something fun, like doing yoga, knitting, or cooking! The Reiche program is a branch of the SAFE & SMART program, which focuses on educating kids about whole health.

If you think either of these (or any of our) mentoring programs sound interesting, please let me know!
avickerson@usm.maine.edu, 780-4537

Tutoring!

We have an after-school study session set up at both Portland and Gorham High School. These sessions are staffed by a teacher, some peer helpers from the school, and USM students. The Portland program is run through the Portland Mentoring Alliance, and the Gorham program is the brainchild of Joe Cerny, one of our AmeriCorps Service Leaders!
If you’d like to spend an hour or two a week in a low-key tutoring environment, please let me know!
avickerson@usm.maine.edu, 780-4537

Read about us in the Free Press!

Our very own Alicia Sampson wrote an article in the Free Press about getting involved with the local community. It hits stands next week, so keep your eyes open!

Dinner at Ronald McDonald House

The last Monday of every month is our night to cook dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on Brackett Street in Portland. We need a few students to commit an hour or two to preparing a dinner that will be served buffet style around 6pm. This a really easy way to get involved at a great place, and I encourage you to contact me if you'd like to join me!
I'll be going this coming Monday, September 29th, around 4:30pm.

I hope that one or more of these activities will inspire you to get involved! We can’t do it without you!
See you soon,
Amanda

KickOffs, Leadership, and Mentoring!

Hellooo!

The Community Service Kick Off went well! We had some dedicated volunteers who helped us build, clean, serve, and cook! We hope that next year, it can be even bigger and better!

Coming up next:
Our Civic Leadership Series!
With this series of leadership trainings, we will be offering practical skills for effective leadership, with the intent of gaining a deeper understanding of the role of what it means to be a citizen leader at USM and in Southern Maine.

We will be offering workshops in Portland and Gorham that fall into two tracks. The USM track is for current or aspiring student group leaders; the Community Partnership track is for students engaged in community work in greater Portland. There is a certificate upon completion of either track.

We really hope that this series will be helpful for you to learn how to be a great leader. It will be hosted by the three VISTAs of our office and the advisor for PIRG, Carrie Shepard.

We’re going to offer it once a week on both campuses:
Gorham Trainings: 7:00 PM Wednesdays in the Husky Hut
Portland Trainings: 1:30 PM Thursdays Luther Bonney 503

If you are interested in participating, please shoot us an email!


We are also in full swing of recruiting mentors for this year!

We currently have mentorships in every Portland elementary school, almost all the Portland middle schools, and Portland and Deering High. In Gorham, we have partnerships at the middle school and the high school. Additionally, we have mentors at Greely Middle School, the Kaler Elementary School in South Portland, and the Saccarappa Primary School in Westbrook.


If you want to be a mentor, please let me know! (avickerson@usm.maine.edu)
It’s an hour a week and will make a HUGE difference in a kid’s life!
I have a pre-application ready to email you ASAP, and we always need mentors!

I hope to see you soon!
:)
Amanda