Archive for June, 2010

This is a great article about one of Spectrum’s volunteer mentors Bill West.  After a liver transplant, West devotes his life to doing good. He is an inspiration to us all, and this piece in today’s Seven Days explains why.

Promises Kept, Seven Days

http://www.7dvt.com/2010promises-kept

This is one of my favorite photos, it is of one of our mentoring pairs. Muna is age 10 and lives in Burlington. Her mentor is Jennifer James. They have been matched through Spectrum’s mentoring program for almost two years now, in fact, this July will be their anniversary. Muna has four siblings and all of them have mentors, either through Spectrum or the Burlington Boys and Girls Club. I know their mother and she is very grateful for the support these mentors provide. I am sure that Jennifer is having a powerful impact on Muna’s life, and I am grateful she has devoted her time and energy in this way for the last two years.

And here is the early report from owner Katy Lesser:
“Mark, We just completed our first night with the SRO kids in the Learning Center. AWESOME!!! It went so well, with everyone starting to feel comfortable, eating like mad and having a ball. We are looking forward to the next session where they’ll really start cooking. It’s going to be great!”

p.s. Katy won the Vermont Small Business Association award last week, I was there for the ceremony at the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn, congratulations to her, a very inspiring night.

This Wednesday, I was interviewed by Melinda Moulton on the CCTV show “On the Waterfront.” It was a great opportunity to discuss Spectrum’s programs from violence prevention to transitional housing as well as the trends we are seeing in Vermont’s homeless and at-risk youth population. Check it out online.

On the Waterfront: Spectrum Youth and Family Services

The deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy visited Spectrum yesterday to learn about our substance abuse treatment programs.  He praised Spectrum’s work as a national model for substance abuse treatment. 

Click here to view this video from Fox 44: White House Drug Expert Visits Spectrum

Paul was just elected co-chair of the Vermont Council on Domestic Violence.  The Council is a statewide multidisciplinary group created by Vermont statute.  It has  broad representation from state and community stakeholders and provides leadership for Vermont’s statewide effort to eradicate domestic violence. The Council facilitates opportunities for dialogue, advocacy, education and support among state agencies, advocacy groups, and the public.

When kids come into our drop-in center, they are asking for not only a hot meal, shower and place to do laundry, they need some very basic items, one of which is toothbrushes.  Same for the kids our outreach staff meet out on the street.  So I put out a call for donations, two people came through:  board member Mike DeWeese, who is also superintendent of Chittenden Central, and my own dentist Dr. Joseph Kropf.  I have known Joe since he was my brother’s roommate at Boston College back in the 70’s, and he has come through for Spectrum in so many ways time and again.  Thanks to both of these guys for helping us out on the toothbrush hunt.

MCS is where my son Liam goes, just finishing up first grade there, and this past Friday they held a Dress Down Day in which students donated $1 to Spectrum to be able to forego their school uniform and instead wear whatever they wished.  A great success, many thanks to the faculty and students there for supporting us this way!

Gina D’Ambrosio won the Howard Center Program Excellence Award this week.  Gina runs our Jump on Board for Success (JOBS) program which is a collaboration between Spectrum and Howard Center.  We are very proud of Gina for receiving this award, so very well deserved.  Here is an excerpt from the speech given at the awards ceremony:

“Gina has promoted a program with a culture of helping youth find in themselves what has not always been promoted or encouraged: which is the strength to move forward in a positive way.  She has a strength based approach to working with youth and this is promoted to her staff.  Her staff speak volumes to the support and encouragement that Gina provides on a daily basis.  Gina is uniquely qualified for this award as she has remained strong and passionate about the needs of Transition Age youth and through building a strong and sustainable program.  Gina has been a strong advocate for the System of Care for Transition age youth and dedicated to finding ways to meet the needs of youth within our community.  Gina is an inspiration to her staff to keep their outlook positive, that change will come and the youth need your time and support right now.  In our community she is considered an expert on the needs of transition age youth and many consult with her for help and resources to support the youth they are working with.  Gina and the JOBS Program are well respected within the community by youth and professionals.”

Every year Tim recruits a group of cohorts from IBM to do a construction project at Spectrum.  This year the boys who live in our group home on Murray St asked if they could play horsehoes in our yard, so Tim and his crew constructed two horseshoe pits that are about as engineeringly well-designed as any in the nation!    Thanks Tim and the IBMers for helping us on this, the boys love it, staff too!