news-and-updates

Our very own Alecia Rapp in the news !!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:11 +0100

MMCCC AmeriCorps Program Supports Thousands of Mentoring Matches

For the second year in a row, a unique Michigan's AmeriCorps program is helping mentoring organizations from throughout the state to increase their capacity and support mentor/mentee matches. The Mentor Michigan College Coaching Corps (MMCCC) has placed 45 AmeriCorps members statewide to help enhance youth mentoring programs by providing mentor recruitment, training, support and evaluation. By increasing each organizations capacity, each MMCCC member assists with more than 50 mentoring matches for a total impact of more than 2,000 young people matched with mentors.

Like many AmeriCorps members, MMCCC members serve full-time with an organization for an entire year. In return for their service, members receive a small living stipend and an educational award. However, for members like Alecia Rapp, the true reward is getting to impact lives every day.

"I decided that I would love the chance to mentor a young person and started the process. I was then offered the position as the AmeriCorps member and Mentor Coordinator instead," explained Alecia. "I could not pass up this opportunity! Instead of helping one youth I was given the opportunity to help so many more."
Alecia has been serving with the HOPE Mentoring Program in Midland/Isabella County since September of 2011. Her program works with youth in foster care and Alecia has been touched by the courage of one young 13 year old in particular. "The young lady was new to our program and had not been in the foster care system very long. She was unsure if she wanted a mentor but ultimately decided she would."

Since beginning their mentoring relationship, the mentee has exhibited increased confidence and positive attitude. She is so happy now and her mentor feels the same way. The young lady recently told Alecia ""I believe that everyone should have a dream and should pursue it without letting their surroundings stop them. You cannot pick your parents but you CAN pick what you want your future to be."

Mentoring Program and Coordinator Alecia Rapp in the News

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:49:50 +0100

ANSWERING THE CALL TO SERVE

How mentoring is making a difference for Michigan youth.

January 2012

In This Issue

Michigan Mentoring Month

MMCCC: An AmeriCorps Service Story

Mentoring Day at the Capitol

Lloyd Carr MVP Awards

Quick Links

Michigan Community Service Commission

Mentor Michigan

Corporation for National & Community Service

HELPING TOMORROW'S FUTURE TODAY

In December, Governor Snyder delivered a special talent message to the Michigan legislature. A key component of this message was mentoring and the valuable impact that the guidance of a caring adult can have. The Michigan Community Service Commission has long known that mentoring changes lives and has created several initiatives, including Mentor Michigan, to help advance the mentoring movement. Want to know how an hour a week can make the difference of lifetime? Read on in our inaugral edition of "Answering the Call to Serve."

Governor Snyder Proclaims January Michigan Mentoring Month

Across the state, nearly 18,000 caring adultsprovide guidance and support as mentors to more than 23,000 young people in need. By offering a listening ear, a helping hand, and a friendship they can rely on, these mentors are changing lives an hour at time.

This important impact was recognized by Governor Rick Snyder when he proclaimed January to be Michigan Mentoring Month. The declaration made January a month of celebration for many mentoring organizations throughout Michigan, who use the event as a way to generate additional interest in and support for mentoring.

Mentoring Day at the Capitol Celebration

On Friday, January 20, 2012, mentoring programs from across Michigan came together for a special mentoring celebration hosted by Mentor Michigan at the state Capitol. Joining in the Mentoring Day at the Capitol celebration were special guests, Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley and his wife, Julie Calley, who expressed their sincere interest in and dedication to the Michigan mentoring movement.

"It's important to provide meaningful opportunities to build relationships and retain future generations," said Lieutenant Governor Calley. "Mentoring is one way to provide those relationships. Not only will you be helping another person to reach their goals and dreams, but you are helping build a stronger Michigan."

Also taking the stage with the Lieutenant Governor and his wife at the Mentoring Day at the Capitol event were two key leaders in the mentoring field: Tony Campbell, Co-Chair of the Mentor Michigan Leadership Council and Vice President for Community Investments at the Heart of West Michigan United Way; and Dara Munson, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit. In addition, attendees heard the many benefits of mentoring first-hand from two young mentees who shared their mentoring experience.

2012 Lloyd Carr MVP Mentoring Awards Honor Youth in Mentoring Relationships

To recognize youth who have made significant positive change as a result of a mentoring relationship, former University of Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr will present the third annual Lloyd Carr MVP Mentoring Awards. The awards are to four Michigan youths who best exemplify the extraordinary benefits of mentoring.

This year's honoree's include: Willie "Tre" Brooks of Grand Rapids; Gabriela Diaz of Holland; Kyle Gundlach of Waterford; and Brandon Youngblood of Warren. To be eligible for the awards, both the youth mentee and their mentor had to write an essay about their mentoring relationship. It is through these essays that the true benefits of mentoring can be illustrated:

"There are no words to explain the change in my thinking. I'm a better person with a future to look forward to. I'm glad I have my mentor's support and sincere friendship."

"I thank him for all the years he has been there for me and for the problems he has helped me to solve. He has been a remarkable and wonderful role model for me. I was one lucky boy to be matched with Bob."

"This relationship has given him the confidence to be himself because it tells him that despite all the unfortunate events he's had in his life, he will always be worth someone else's time."

"The impact he has made on my life is more than I ever expected. I just know that without taking the opportunity of getting him as my mentor, my life may have been entirely different."

The award winners will be honored at a celebration hosted by Coach Carr on January 30, 2012.

Back to top

Have we inspired you to get involved? Many mentoring programs in Michigan are in need of additional mentors. If you can give an hour a week to a child in need of a caring adult, visit www.mentormichigan.org to find a directory of mentoring programs in your area.

About the MCSC

The Michigan Community Service Commissionbuilds a culture of service by providing vision and resources to strengthen communities through volunteerism. In 2011-2012, the MCSC is granting nearly $8 million in federal funds to local communities for volunteer programs and activities. The MCSC is funding 24 AmeriCorps programs, 20 Learn and Serve programs, and seven Volunteer Michigan grantees. The Governor's Service Awards and Mentor Michigan are also premier programs of the MCSC.

www.michigan.gov/volunteer

2012 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR LOW-INCOME MINORITY STUDENTS

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:19:40 +0100

BILL GATES non-profit organization is giving away 1,000 scholarships for the 2012 school season --

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
Nationwide (BlackNews.com) -- The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program (GMS) will select 1,000 talented students next year to receive a good-through-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. Scholars will also be provided with personal and professional development through their leadership programs, along with academic support throughout their college career.
The program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established to provide outstanding low income minority students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest. To date, the program has given scholarships to more than 15,000 students.
Continuing scholars may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science.
The deadline for submitting an application is Wednesday, January 11, 2012.
To apply, visit www.gmsp.org

HOPE is in the NEWS!

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:05:43 +0100

Mentor Michigan has published an article highlighting HOPE's National Foster Care Month service project. Read the article directly below, or follow this link to check it out for yourself: http://www.michigan.gov/mentormichigan/0,1607,7-193--253990--,00.html

Why Your Program Should Get Involved in National Foster Care Month
Written by Jessica Chung, Mentor Michigan AmeriCorps*VISTA

During National Foster Care Month, Mentor Michigan encourages programs to find ways to
utilize mentoring-related events and activities that recruit, recognize, celebrate, and provide
service to also recognize, promote, and support the foster care community. In order to help
mentoring programs contextualize these goals, Mentor Michigan asked Melissa “Missy” Olgine,
AmeriCorps member and mentor coordinator for the Midland/Isabella County DHS-sponsored
Helping Others Prepare for Everything (H.O.P.E.) Mentoring Program for foster youth, to share
what they are doing and why.

What is H.O.P.E. Mentoring doing for National Foster Care Month?

Our program will work on three projects on May 7, 2011:

1. Thank-you gifts for foster care parents: Mentors and mentees show their appreciation for
the foster parents in the community by delivering flowers to their homes. The Midland
Gleaners, a retiree group from the community, is helping to put together and deliver the
gifts.

2. Professional youth packages: The Midland Gleaners, mentors, and mentees will make
"packages" for youth who are aging out of the foster care system that contain helpful
tools for their job search: a planner, an USB drive with job-skill tips and templates
already uploaded, and a resume portfolio. These will be kept in the local DHS office for
dissemination. (Email mentormichigan@michigan.gov for ready-to-upload versions of
H.O.P.E.’s job-skill documents.)

3. Community Art Project: Foster care youth, alumni, and others whose lives have been
touched by the foster care system will spend a day creating art which explores the culture
of foster care by sharing their observations, insights, and lessons on postcards. This
postcard project is intended to build community at the same time as it educates foster care
professionals, providers, and the general public about the culture of foster care.

What is the main purpose of your events/activities?

Well, quite simply, our purpose is to come together to make a difference in our communities
through projects that connect youth and adults as well as promote awareness of foster youth in
our community and give back to those who are actively involved in caring for our kids!
What will the Midland Gleaners, the mentors, and the community gain from participating in or
observing these activities?

For the Midland Gleaners, these projects benefit both their fraternal organization and the larger
community by their reaching out to people they don’t know, connecting generations, and
developing new relationships while promoting awareness of an important and often
misunderstood part of our community: foster care.

For the mentors, these projects provide opportunities to spend some time with their mentees
developing Positive Youth Development (PYD) assets, such as competence, confidence,
connection, character, caring/compassion, and contribution. They will also get a chance to give
back to their community, and make meaningful connections with their mentee’s foster parent or
guardian as well as other foster youth in the program.

For the community, these projects are important because anytime we strengthen and support one
facet of the community, such as foster parents, we are strengthening and supporting the
community as a whole. Additionally, the voices and faces of foster youth are often unseen and
unheard in our community and this gives our youth valuable opportunities to meet and interact
with their community in a safe, positive, and meaningful way. These projects are one more step
toward dispelling the myth that foster youth are “juvenile delinquents,” “bad kids,” or somehow
“deserving” of the situation that they are in. Instead, these projects help the community see foster
youth as compassionate, caring, and contributing members of society who are in essence just like
them.

Why should other mentoring programs participate in National Foster Care Month?

Our communities are always in desperate need of people willing to open their homes to a foster
child, especially homes that are willing to take in a teenager. Events/activities that promote
awareness of this need and seek to recruit foster homes and caring adults are vital.

Recruitment and promotion must also address the myths that surround foster care. As stated
above, most people in the community have very little knowledge of what foster care is and often
assume that foster youth are “delinquents” whose behavior landed them in their situation. In
reality, these kids are placed in care not because of anything they did, but because of parental
abuse or neglect. So, promoting awareness of who foster youth are and the good things they do is
pivotal.

However, I think the biggest part of any National Foster Care Month event/activity should
be recognizing and supporting the foster care community in some way.

Any event should have some element of this, whether it be through supporting our youth, our
foster parents/caretakers, our mentors or other supportive adults, or recognizing and celebrating
caseworkers and child protection service workers. Our workers, mentors, and foster parents are
overworked and often under-appreciated, and our youth are not nearly celebrated and supported
enough. Sometimes even the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference. It’s hard to
imagine, but some of our youth have never received a birthday card or had someone say that they
see value in them. Simple things like thank you cards for our hardworking DHS staff and letters
of appreciation for foster parents that do the day-to-day work in the trenches can be just what
that person needed to hear that day. It doesn’t have to be a large, extravagant gesture -- just
someone else acknowledging who you are and the good work you’re doing can make all the difference!

Scholarship Opportunity ($2,500)

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:14:04 +0100

RARE Everyday Hero Scholarship Program RARE's mission is to inspire Michigan's youth to see possibilities through real-life examples of Everyday Heroes. At a time when society has lost sight of its real heroes and material things have replaced character as the currency for measuring success, RARE celebrates the lives and life lessons of everyday people in the workplace who through extraordinary commitment, integrity, selflessness, and courage are changing lives and inspiring others. High school seniors who are set to graduate in May or June 2011 can submit an original essay about someone whom they consider to be an Everyday Hero for the chance to win a scholarship.

So who's your hero? Is it a foster parent? Mentor? Caseworker? Right it up and see if you can win some cash!

(Deadline: December 1, 2010 Contact: www.RAREfoundation.org)

New initiative fosters student success

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:34:31 +0100

Some would say that life is a series of details; for college students, it is often viewed as a sequence of transitions – moving from one role and phase of life to another. A new initiative at Ferris State University is dedicated to focusing on these transitions and helping orphans and foster youth find a home as they settle into their new stage of life as Ferris students.

The Ferris Youth Initiative was launched this semester to aid eligible students by providing academic support, faculty mentoring, life and wellness training, and financial assistance. Eligible students are those who are either parentless or have aged out of the foster care system.

Hoping to give them the skills to live independently, connect socially and do well academically, this program will strive to make this happen through mentoring opportunities with faculty members and a special scholarship that will assist them financially.

Dean of Student Life Leroy Wright will serve as the initiative’s advisor. Wright attended the Michigan Teen Conference in June, where he was able to learn about the circumstances of foster youth and the parentless, and about the current trends in the foster care system.

“Annually, more than 20,000 youth age out of foster care across the country, and well over 1,600 do so in the state of Michigan,” Wright said. “When they leave this system, they face the challenge of figuring out how to live independently; they’re going to face some transitional issues that are unique.”

Ferris President David L. Eisler and Ferris Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion David Pilgrim recognized there was a need to help these students and developed the Ferris Youth Initiative to focus on helping them settle in to college life, Wright added.

The program is open to both new and current orphaned and aged-out-of-foster-care students who attend Ferris full-time, live on campus and are 24 years old and younger.

“This program is consistent with Mr. Ferris’ charge that we – the staff, faculty and students – always look for ways to make the world a better place,” Pilgrim said. “Our goal is to make sure that these young people have greater access to college, and equally important, that they are graduated. Each semester I – and many others – will serve as mentors; and I promise you this: we will do everything we can to make sure that these young people are successful.”

http://visionmidmichigan.com/?p=2098

VISIONMIDMICHIGAN.COM

Vision Mid Michigan -- Vision Mid Michigan is an e-publication and website highlighting the creative people and innovative businesses working towards the future growth of the mid-Michigan region. Vision Mid Michigan is developed and operated by a team of seasoned journalists who share a passion for sharing the interesting stories of intriguing people doing extraordinary things throughout the region.

HOPE in the News: "Community gardens to provide fresh produce to those in need"

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:41:01 +0100

A news release is now on MMCAA's website. Check it out!!

Foster Club All-Stars

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:25:42 +0100

Hello to my fellow foster care youth in Michigan. I am enjoying myself so far in Oregon. I had a long day of travel yesturday. I have training today that will be fun and exciting. I cannot wait to learn all the new things and to spend my summer with the eleven other amazing foster youth. I miss all of you and will keep you updated with all of my new exsperiences.

Woman proves college is possible for foster kids

Wed, 12 May 2010 19:54:52 +0100

She'll offer help to others at conference

BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story should have said an Arizona businessman created the scholarship that helped Cherish Thomas. This report is correct.

More former foster children in the state are attending college or trade school, overcoming enormous obstacles such as homelessness and poverty -- thanks, in part, to an aggressive push by universities, social service agencies and community leaders.

State records show that the number of foster youths attending college or trade school jumped from 127 in 2004 to 616 in 2009. That number is expected to climb even though the number of youths 18 and older still receiving foster care is declining.

Cherish Thomas, 22, born to a drug-addicted prostitute, was in 20 foster homes before attending the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in sociology and African-American studies. Now a graduate student there, she plans to tell her story today to more than 100 foster care youths at "Rising Above the Odds Against Me," a conference at Oakland University designed to help steer them toward college.

More of state's foster youths are heading to college

Thomas seemed destined for a life of despair. Born in Lansing to a cocaine-addicted prostitute and a mentally unstable father, she was in foster care before age 1, bouncing from family to family.

She was adopted by a single mother at age 5, but was back in foster care by 11 when her adoptive mother was unable to care for her.

Her childhood was marred by sexual assaults and intermittent homelessness. She spent one summer as a young child living on a playground in Georgia, begging food from strangers.

By 17, she had been in 20 foster placements in a half-dozen states -- a not-uncommon tale among the nation's estimated 800,000 foster care kids.

"It wasn't easy, but it made me who I am today," she told the Free Press.

Sharing her story

Who she is today is a University of Michigan graduate student and motivational speaker.

Thomas, 22, plans to share her remarkable story at a conference she helped organize today at Oakland University. About 200 people, roughly half of them foster care kids, are expected to attend the 2010 Foster Care Leadership Conference "Rising Above the Odds Against Me" to learn about college opportunities.

*Taken From Freep.com: http://www.freep.com/article/20100508/NEWS03/5080320/1001/NEWS/Woman-proves-college-is-possible-for-foster-kids

American Foster Kids Hold Out Hope

Wed, 12 May 2010 17:43:17 +0100

Brantwood Children's Home in Montgomery Alabama Hasn't Had A Single Adoption in Four Years

By Mark Strassmann

(To see the video click HERE)

(CBS) The Brantwood Children's Home in Montgomery, Ala., is a place for kids from families broken beyond repair. They're all between 10 and 21 years old. All are available for adoption and looking for a loving home.

Will's a fifth-grader in his seventh school. He wonders what kind of family will adopt him, and how it will happen.

Too often, it doesn't.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports there haven't been any adoptions at Brantwood in the past four years.

Brantwood Children's Home

"It pierces your heart," says Kim Herbert, the executive director of Brantwood. "That's what we want for them."

Adoption awareness has been heightened by the Haiti earthquake -- which created thousands of new orphans. In the last eight weeks, more than 1,000 of them have come to America for adoption -- more than the last three years combined.

It's a new chance many Brantwood kids will never get.

"It's been too long for them, and that hope is gone," Herbert said. "They count on themselves."

Adoption Resources
Alabama DHR Adoption Website
Child Welfare League of America
Adoption Institute
Adopt Us Kids

In 2008, America's foster care system had 123,000 kids available for adoption. Just 45 percent -- 55,000 -- of them were adopted.

Typically the older they get, the worse their chances it will ever happen. Many children are also battling the scars of mental or physical abuse.

Many states and agencies post albums of available children.

"Meet these kids," Herbert said, "and learn their hearts. See their needs and what they're after."

Jack's after a second chance. At 13, he's the baby in a fractured family of nine. He says he's praying for a home of his own.

They all are praying for a family - and so far that is just a dream.

*Taken from CBS News Online: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/eveningnews/main6293660.shtml