Get Involved in Volunteer Recruiting Process

Did you know that UrbanFUTURE will be providing services to 3 times as many students this year? We are excited to be helping more students see and believe in their possibilities, however, we are in need of even more volunteers than ever. This year, we have gotten off to a strong start with nearly 150 active volunteer tutors and mentors already meeting with students at Fanning Middle School and Mann Elementary, and we will be starting at 4 additional schools over the next several weeks.

Our volunteers this year have come from a variety of sources. You may have seen our flyers at Walgreens, or our posters at your favorite coffee shop. We may have met you at one of the many community activities we participate in such as the Festival of Nations, or an outdoor concert. What you may not know, is that while these activities help us meet many of our volunteers, over 60% of our volunteers come from organizations and institutions. It seems that once a member of a company, club, church or school starts working with our students, they share their experience and before you know it we have several volunteers participating from that same location. Maritz, Wells Fargo Advisors, and Ameren are all wonderful examples of companies that support us with volunteerism and funding, while St. Louis University shows how mobilizing the student body can provide much needed tutors for our students. 

In saying this, think about groups in which you belong. Whether it be your place of employment, church, fraternity or sorority, or professional organization, we would love for them to hear our story. Our current volunteers are our best advocates, but we are willing to come to your organization to provide a presentation. The presentation could be as brief or as detailed as your time allows, and we are even willing to provide on-site volunteer training. UrbanFUTURE is excited to have the opportunity to serve more families, schools, and communities, and looks forward to even more volunteer participation.

Fanning Falcons are Flying

UrbanFUTURE at Fanning Middle School is in full swing!  With 62 students fully enrolled in Restoration, afternoons are filled with a buzz that starts off with grade specific homework help.  Students are already taking charge of completing missed assignments, as well as staying on top of current assignments, and are eager to improve or maintain the grades that they received on their progress reports at the end of last week.  

Following homework help, students are engaged in great enrichment classes through the EXPLORE! program.  They are cooking with St. Louis University nutrition students, sculpting with COCA, rooting for the football team through cheerleading, battling in a game of wits during Chess Club, and establishing a student government among other activities. WOW! Enrichment programming runs Monday through Friday so that our students have engaging alternatives to going home every day of the week.  As the EXPLORE! program manager, Jocelyn Peters has gone above and beyond to engage our students in a fun and meaningful way.

The fun doesn't stop there!  Students are also excited about the tutors and mentors that they have the opportunity to work with during the last hour of programming through the IMPACT and INSPIRE programs.  Tutors have begun delving into the curriculum with students in both math and communication arts and already the students are soaring!  Though the academic component can be difficult, students and tutors have been working hard to improve in basic skills and in challenging reading materials.  Keep up the good work!

Keshun Rhodes, a seventh grader pictured above, asks about her mentor every day. Through the INSPIRE program, run by Domnick Hadley, she has found someone that she can talk to about reading, classes, teachers, and just life in general.  Though they have only met with each other once, Keshun is bubbling with excitement to work with Doreen again.  Already, Doreen has met with Keshun's language arts teacher and her mom to talk about Keshun's reading levels and how she can help to improve her grades in language arts!  

In addition to great programming after-school, UrbanFUTURE is also involved with the students during the school day!  On the 8th grade field trip to the Magic House last week, UrbanFUTURE staff helped to facilitate the trip with the 8th grade teachers and had a lot of fun in the process.  Check out some of the great fun the students (and staff!) had in the pictures below!

Ms. Berry, the IMPACT team leader, on the electric ball!  Hair flew everywhere as both teachers and students took their turn!

Ms. Krominga (science teacher) with two UrbanFUTURE students, Porcia and Darrion,  in the Mark Twain exhibit about Tom Sawyer!  Students got the opportunity to dress up like the characters they'd read about in class.

Returning Student Speaks about UrbanFUTURE

Hi my name is Janise and I attend Mann Elementary. This is my second year in UrbanFUTURE. I like it because they teach you a lot and they give you a mentor and tutor. Last year my mentor helped me improve my SRI score, now I’m reading much better. I had a problem with my division and my tutor helped me with it. The next day in class I got all my division right. UrbanFUTURE has done a lot for me. They taught me how to be more responsible too. They take us on field trips to different place so we can learn about careers. We went to SLU medical school last year and learned about doctors and what it takes to be one. My mentor goes to school there and she took us on a tour. It was really cool. They have a fake doctor’s office and they let us pretend to be doctors. For kids just entering UrbanFUTURE I would tell them positive things. I would say, “you made the right choice deciding to come here, they help you with anything you need.” UrbanFUTURE is the Best!

Kicking Off the Program Year

Labor Day has come and pass marking the unofficial end of summer. With the end of summer comes the beginning of a new Program Year for UrbanFUTURE. Next week, programming will be in full swing at Fanning Middle and Mann Elementary schools with over 100 students signed up to meet with tutors and mentors. Already, parents have attended orientations, volunteers have been trained/re-trained and students have completed pre-test assessments.

At both sites, 4th - 8th grade students will have an opportunity to participate in INSPIRE Mentoring, IMPACT Tutoring and Explore! Careers. The full menu of programs will help students grow as a student and as a person in preparation for high school.

UrbanFUTURE has hired Ray Sewell as a Community Specialist to work specifically with parents on taking on a leadership role in their child's education. This new position will provide
UrbanFUTURE parents with an additional resource in navigating their child's educational path. Ray and the Team Leaders will host several parent events during the year to engage, instruct and listen to parents on the challenges they are facing.

The biggest news for the new school year is UrbanFUTURE's expansion into three new school sites. Team Leaders have already begun meeting with parents, teachers and students at L'Ouverture Middle and Jefferson and Meramec Elementary schools. Beginning in October, students at these sites will have the opportunity to begin the IMPACT Tutoring program. There may also be opportunities for students to attend Explore! Careers' field trips this fall. INSPIRE Mentoring at these sites will not begin until January.

This promises to be an exciting year for UrbanFUTURE. We look forward to working with more students, parents, volunteers and teachers than ever before as we all work towards eliminating the academic achievement gap in urban schools.

LAUNCH-ing to New Levels

UrbanFUTURE recently formed LAUNCH, a friends-of group that is working to take UrbanFUTURE to the next level. The primary objective of LAUNCH is to help UrbanFUTURE grow its support base by engaging current supporters more deeply in grassroots efforts and reaching new supporters through peer-to-peer interaction. Currently, LAUNCH is comprised of current tutors and mentors who have expressed an interest in taking their volunteer participation to another level.

LAUNCH will plan and execute quarterly fundraising/friendraising events as a way to introduce new people to UrbanFUTURE. These events will provide individuals an opportunity to learn more about the work of UrbanFUTURE and how they can support our work of eliminating the achievement gap in St. Louis.

LAUNCH will also be leading a volunteer-driven campaign this fall to raise money and new donor and volunteer referrals. The campaign will culminate with the "Dine In For UrbanFUTURE" event on Wednesday, October 27th. Stay tuned for more details on how you can participate in "Dine In For UrbanFUTURE."

If you are interested in joining LAUNCH, please contact Tim Weiss at (314)776-3434 or tim@urbanfuturestl.org. Help us LAUNCH UrbanFUTURE to new levels!

UrbanFUTURE Leadership Retreat

For two days, UrbanFUTURE staff gathered and reflected on what it means to be a leader for UrbanFUTURE. With the recent doubling of the staff to prepare to expand to new school sites, this also provided an opportunity for all the staff (new and old/veteran) to get to know one another better, while discussing topics related to UrbanFUTURE and leadership and enjoy some fun at Frank Van Bree's (UrbanFUTURE's CEO) lakehouse on Lake Perry.

We talked about what leadership means and how we as employees can be better leaders at cultivating love, generating energy, inspiring audacity and providing proof in everything we do from working with parents to recruiting volunteers to engaging donors. We discussed how eliminating the achievement gap cannot be accomplished with just volunteers or just schools, but requires mobilizing all of the stakeholders in a struggle to restore the education system in under-resourced communities.

Jason Julian and Maurice Horton of Urban K-Life Ministries joined the staff for a session to discuss the work of building relationships with students and parents to affect real change at an individual level, which will result in systemic-level change. They inspired UrbanFUTURE staff with their personal stories of overcoming hardship and how they've used that to help young people dealing with many of the same struggles.

The two-day retreat wrapped up with Frank Van Bree giving each staff member a copy of the book Tribes by Seth Godin. The book will help to keep the conversation going about how we can all be better leaders and how UrbanFUTURE can lead as an organization.

With the school year set to begin next Monday, getting away for 36 hours provided us all with a chance to learn, grow and reflect on the work we'll be doing this year.

Gather for UrbanFUTURE

A few weeks ago in this space, I talked about how you can support UrbanFUTURE's efforts, but those were more general ways to support UrbanFUTURE. Today, I want to talk about a specific way you can help spread the word about UrbanFUTURE to family and friends in a social, non-threatening environment.

Several months ago, two different UrbanFUTURE volunteers approached me about their own ideas for engaging their networks in the work of UrbanFUTURE. One mentor decided she'd like to host a luncheon with some of her friends, so she could tell them a little bit more about the organization and encourage them to get involved as volunteers and/or donors. The casual luncheon at the mentors house has resulted in over $500 in gifts and a few women interested in volunteering with UrbanFUTURE.

Another mentor, told me about how a group of guys within his profession get together for happy hour every other month. He thought it would be cool if each month a different charity was featured. The guys donate $20 to the charity and get a chance to catch up with one another and learn more about the work of the charity. As luck would have it, UrbanFUTURE has been the featured charity for the first two of these happy hours, and will again be the featured charity in October. To date, the happy hours have raised just under $400, but more importantly, 20 new individuals (and counting) have been introduced to UrbanFUTURE.

Anyone can do this. Whether you want to use a specific party (birthday, anniversary, holiday), a regular get together or plan something on your own, you can help get the word out about UrbanFUTURE to those in your network and spend time with family, friends and co-workers in the process.

If you are interested in hosting a get-together on behalf of UrbanFUTURE, please contact me (Tim Weiss) at (314)776-3434 or tim@urbanfuturestl.org. UrbanFUTURE will provide any informational materials and will have someone come to your event to talk about how people can get involved in UrbanFUTURE's work.