Countdown to September

The Outreach Center Update

It's official.  We have an Outreach Drop-in Center for kids that will open in September for one day a week.  The outreach counselors began spreading the word this week to kids.  

Very shortly, we will announce the addition of a new leader to our team: Director of Outreach Center.  

Program of the Month!

Each month, the StandUp For Kids National Office picks a city program as their program of the month.  Worcester just found out we are program of the month for July 2009!  We are so proud of our wonderful team of volunteers.  Each volunteer continues to bring amazing value to the team.  Keep up the good work!

Coming Soon: The Summer 2009 Newsletter

Rob Donnelly is currently working on our Summer 2009 Newsletter.  Articles include:

• Greetings from the Executive Director
• Volunteer Spotlight
• Becoming a Volunteer: A How to Guide
• Calendar of Events

The newsletter letter will be posted to our official StandUp For Kids City Program site (http://www.standupforkids.org/local/Massachusetts/Worcester/).  A shortcut will be included in an upcoming blog.

Updates to Our Resource Documents

Brian Bickford, Director of Community Resource Development, is currently updating two of our resource documents for kids: Food Pantries & Meals Served and the Long Resource list (includes Job Resources and Transportation).  The outreach counselors use these lists to help out kids on a weekly basis during street outreach.  It's very important to keep these documents up-to-date so that we are providing our kids with the best information possible.

A Quick Update

Outreach Drop-in Center

The Outreach Center agreement will be signed within the next week.  We are making plans for the first month (i.e. communicating the location to kids, pulling together supplies for the center, and identifying some activities to hold at the center).  

Don't Runaway Taskforce

Kristina England and Rob Donnelly are helping the National Office restructure the Don't Runaway Program.  This program allows StandUp For Kids to reach out to at risk kids within the elementary and middle schools.  College and high school students can also start school clubs and present to youth in their community.  Here is the link to the current site: http://www.dontrunaway.org/ (the new site is still in development).

Invite Us to Present at Organization

We are always available to present about StandUp For Kids.  Just email us at worcester@standupforkids.org.

Making Donations

If you are interested in making donations to our group, please check out our wish list or email us at worcester@standupforkids.org.  

Sign Up Your Shaw's Rewards Card

Want to help SUFK?  Enroll your Shaws reward card in a special program and then just shop.  Easy to enroll, secure, confidential.  We can also provide your donation for tax purposes.  For more information on the program and how to enroll, email suek@standupforkids.org    Your email address will not be used for anything other than the Shaws donation program.

Don't Forget: We're on Facebook

Follow us on Facebook.  You can either join our Group or our Fan page.   

Want to Become a Volunteer?

Just contact worcester@standupforkids.org.  We have several different committees you can pick from: Outreach, Community Resource Development, Public Relations, Recruitment, Fund Development, Training, or Program Support.  There are no set hours for volunteering.  If you can only volunteer a couple hours a month, that's fine with us.  Every effort helps!

The Latest From Worcester

As always, street outreach is going well.  Ally Trull and Rob Donnelly are beginning to plan ways to advertise the outreach center., which will open in the first week of September.  

Upcoming Events

Volunteers will participate in the Turn Purple Campaign on Sunday, July 19th at 12:00 p.m. in Elm Park.  This event spreads awareness about the number 1 cause of youth homelessness: child abuse.  Volunteers will dress in purple (including purple face paint) and hand out flyers to cars driving by.

Another Update from Rainy Worcester

Yes, the blog skipped a week because I went away and forgot to have someone else update it.  Whoops.  

The weather in Worcester has been mostly rain.  We only saw two days of sun in June.  However, the outreach counselors have begun to meet more and more kids on outreach nights.  Come this September, we should be able to provide these kids with an address for our outreach drop-in space.  That way, when the rain still hasn't stopped, they have some place to go that is dry and safe. 

Latest Happenings

Volunteers Brian Bickford, Allyson Trull, and Osvaldo Daiz participated in the Community Health Link Fair event held on June 17, 2009 at the PIP Shelter in Worcester.  They provided information about our program as well as distributed hygiene kits.  Homeless guests staying at the PIP Shelter enjoyed the food, health services and great music which brought a needed joy into their lives.

This week, we received a generous donation from Ben E. Factors Foundation, a group that continues to be a great support to our program.  

The outreach center committee continues to work hard on planning for the outreach center.  We are just finalizing an agreement with the location for the drop-in center.  Rob Donnelly has drafted a wonderful plan for us.  Now we just need to recruit some more volunteers so that we have enough outreach counselors for both street outreach and the outreach center.