We started doing our own snowboarding program two weeks ago, we take 8 kids out to Bolton on Friday nights, here is an update from our staff member Faith Foley:

Hello All,

The snowboarding trip on Friday was again, amazing! Everyone’s gear is all set and everyone was much more comfortable.

Judith-Seemed to enjoy herself although she said she was pretty tired and ended the night a little early. She’s pretty quiet so it’s hard to tell what is really going on for her. But when she’s asked how she’s doing, she has nothing but smiles. She and Sara may have made a connection since they both took the break together and rode back to Burlington together.

Sara-Enjoyed herself even though she said she was having a little bit of a rough week and snowboarding was a little more difficult since it was colder. She was enthusiastic about what she learned and the progress she made.

Matt-Was pretty excited to get back on the mountain and really opened up this week. He was quite chatty and stuck it out through the lesson. He is learning the new skills pretty quickly since he sat out on the last lesson.

Ashley-Enjoyed herself and the time on the mountain. She was proud that she was able to land a 360! She did a better job as a peer leader in the beginning of the night and turned into quite the cheerleader at the end, encouraging people to get back on the mountain and give it another shot.

Shane-Did really well and was already nailing turns this week. He fell pretty hard on his wrist and took a quick break but stayed on the hill for the remainder of the evening. He was excited that he was able to make it down the Mighty Mite without falling and was all smiles at the end despite falling again on his wrist.

Francis-Did great on the runs with the instructor and stayed with the group. He had a good attitude although he was somewhat resistant to helping others because he feels like he would be a “bad teacher”. He is self-conscious about modeling the moves for the group but stayed with us without a lot of griping to ride alone.

It was yet another great night and people are learning really quickly! It won’t be long before everyone begins cruising down the big hill!

Faith

Every December at Spectrum Youth and Family Services we hold a legislative open house and invite legislators to come and learn about the needs of homeless and at-risk youth. The highlight of the evening … (Click here to read the Free Press article that I wrote)

It was quite an ordeal making it to D.C. last night for the presentation on Capitol Hill naming Spectrum as Agency of the Year. The National Network for Youth put it on and it was worth the various planes, trains and automobiles (cab actually) I had to take during the winter storm to get there. There were a few hundred people there, youth workers from around the country, including Hawaii, California and Oregon. Very impressive, and several congressmen and women too.

I said that I accept the award on behalf of our incredibly dedicated staff, our volunteers and our board, but also on behalf of the young people whom we serve, that in many respects they are the real heros, most of them having come from backgrounds of abuse, poverty, neglect, abandonment, domestic violence and sexual abuse. “It takes incredible determination, tenacity, and will to come from that and create a life of happiness and meaning,” I said. “This award, it is for them.”

I gave a speech about Spectrum a few weeks ago, and our work with homeless teens, and received this beautiful letter from someone there:

“Dear Mark,

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. It was a real eye-opener for all of us to hear about the many people you are helping at Spectrum around the state of Vermont, as well as to hear about your own success stories. As a retired schoolteacher myself, it is heart-warming. We had no idea the Spectrum staff was so large and doing so much around the state.

The day after you spoke, I was talking with a gentleman at a local business where I work part-time, and he was raving, as he often does, about the help Spectrum is giving his grandson at one of your homes. This man says it is the first time a counselor has gotten this boy to open up, after a long time coming. After hearing you, and then hearing him, I can see that many impossible dreams can come true. Change can happen with heroic efforts like yours and your teams and we are forever thankful.”

This is a follow up to my last entry, describing the interactions between legislators and a dozen or so youth last Wednesday night.

We started off the hour going around the room with introductions. One one young man introduced himself by saying, “My name is Ed and I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school.” (I know the family and it is true.)

A young woman who was present talked about her addiction to drugs, and going to rehab, and said, “If I had left there, and returned to my home town, Rutland, I guarantee you I would have gone right back to drugs, hanging around the same old friends and the same surroundings. But I came here instead, to Spectrum, and now I am living in the SRO (our transitional living residence in Burlington), and I see a Spectrum drug counselor, and I am clean and drug-free. You get the support you need here. You are living with other young people who are like you, struggling to do the right thing, to stay away from drugs, to live a positive life.”

There were several sentiments like that, young people talking about the support they get at Spectrum and how our organization is helping them.

It made me feel very proud to be part of Spectrum, that we are really doing something worthwhile to help young people who have very significant needs.

At the end of the hour, one legislator said, “I am going now to a dialogue night in South Burlington, to talk with parents and students there, and the youth there have problems with drugs and alcohol abuse, but it still pales in comparison to the situations you young people face. No one in that community is facing sleeping on the streets, especially in the winter. We have to find a way to get your stories out into the broader community.”

Another legislator asked if we can get our kids to Montpelier to speak to the legislature in 2009, same idea, “They need to know what is happening with homeless youth in our state.”

“This article is a follow up to one that ran last year about one of our “mentees.” This is an incredibly inspirational family, they have some enormous challenges but face them ALL with dignity, determination and lots of love. I’ve come to really love this family in the years that I’ve worked with them.In addition, Alicia’s mentor—Terri Gerard—will be honored in January as our National Mentoring Month Mentor of the Year. I believe that Alicia will present her with this award.One of the many reasons that I LOVE my job!” -Deanna Cameron, Spectrum’s Volunteer Coordinator

Read her story, it truly is a dream come true.

… “She came home and said, ‘Mom, they’re just like us,’” said Binti Miller, Alicia’s grandmother. “I am happy that she doesn’t treat people as rich or poor, black or white, she just sees them as people. Because that’s what we are, we’re all people, and they’re all kids.”

Thanks to the generousity of community members, donors, the Alpine Shop, and Bolton Valley Ski Resort our youth will be hitting the slopes. Read the article printed in yesterday’s Times Argus

There isn’t a lot of good news coming out of Washington these days, but here is some.

Last Thursday, September 25,the United States Senate unanimously approved critical legislation to address problems facing runaway and homeless youths across the country. The legislation, introduced by Senator Leahy last May, will reauthorize key federal grant programs to provide states with grants to help the thousands of homeless young people nationwide.

I testified on this bill, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, back in May when it first came up for reauthorization. So did Michael Hutchins, who was once a homeless youth in our shelter and now works for us as a counselor. Michael and I flew to D.C. to testify at the Senate Judiciary Committee about the importance of programs like Spectrum which help runaway and homeless teens. It looked at the time as if the Act would easily be reauthorized, but for four months it was being blocked by some senators. But Senator Leahy would not give up and it is finally being passed.

We are grateful to Senator Leahy, a great advocate for homeless and at-risk youth.

My wife is a professor at St. Michael’s College and recently she met another professor who disclosed to her that her son resides at the Spectrum SRO (Single Room Occupancy). This is our transitional living program for homeless youth. My wife asked this woman, “How has your son’s experience been at Spectrum?” This woman went on and on about how wonderful the staff have been at Spectrum, and how they have helped her son so much. She particularly noted the volunteer work our staff and youth do with the animals at the Burlington Humane Society. (Our staff started taking kids there about a year ago, as a volunteer project.)

I of course love hearing this kind of spontaneous feedback. It tells me that our staff are as special as I think they are, and that they regularly exhibit incredible kindness and compassion toward those in our care.

Our street outreach team is out every day connecting with homeless youth and giving them everything from sleeping bags and tents to “survival kits” to sandwiches and water. This work is funded by a couple of grants and donations, and we are always struggling to scrap together the dollars we need for outreach. A few weeks ago we were looking at the budget for this and I saw we were spending a lot at Costco to buy cases of bottled water. Since our outreach team connects with over 500 young people during the course of a year, they give out a lot of water, which adds up to a lot of money in Costco’s pocket.

So our new development associate, Stephanie Reiss, wrote a letter to Crystal Rock, which produces Vermont Pure water in bottles. She explained what our outreach team does, how many kids they help and our need for free or reduced price water. So they wrote her back and said they’d donate 15 free cases to us per month for the next 12 months, and if we need more than that in any one month, they’ll sell us a case for $5!!!

This is a tremendous help to us and a true act of generosity by this company, for which we are very grateful.