Hope Summer Program is underway!

The HOPE Summer Program provides summer academic support for teens in the Ypsilanti area while giving them the opportunity to learn from each other and to broaden their horizons as learners. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the group meets for two hours to work on critical reading, writing, and math. They analyze news articles, craft responses and other writing assignments, and bolster their core academic subjects while supplementing them with activities, like poetry writing, designed to help them enjoy using critical and creative thinking. On Thursdays, students and instructors take field trips, often to local schools, colleges and universities, to learn about the diversity of educational opportunities available in the area.

As an incentive to stick with the program and as a way to make it financially accessible, teens are compensated for their attendance after agreeing to attend for the full month of the program. This commitment is part of what ensures teens leave the program having taken full advantage of the support it offers them. Knowledge is power, and the HOPE Summer Program gives teens access to knowledge they need to navigate school successfully and make empowered decisions about their own educational paths.

Please consider making a donation to support the HOPE Summer Program. Go to the donate page at www.dedicatedtomakeachange.com to make a Paypal donation and help teens grow as whole learners this summer.

In the coming days, we're looking forward to posting bios from the teens and the instructors, as well as featured work produced during the program. Follow us here to stay updated!

We're Moving

Dedicated to Make a Change is moving to a new blog. The address is changebringshope.com.This blog will still be available for you to read, but I will no longer be updating it. Please subscribe to the new blog to get all our updates.

Prevent and Prevail has funding!

Last Monday Max, Gail, and I made presentation to Robby, the diversity committee co-chair for the Zingerman's community of businesses to ask for money to fund Prevent and Prevail. To make a long story short: Zingerman's is giving Dedicated to Make a Change $3000.

Prevent and Prevail  is a group for youth ages 11-19 to discuss topics including HIV, other STDs, sex, relationships, and drugs in a positive and healthy atmosphere. We will be running the program for two sessions during the 2013-2014 school year. Each session will consist of three discussions, each 2 hours long. Everyone involved will be paid, including the participants. Participants will be paid 5 dollars an evening as motivation for youth to come to the meeting with idea being that youth might come for the money, but will also walk away with the knowledge to protect themselves and their partners. There will also be paid facilitator positions for older teens who want to lead the discussions. Follow this blog and the Dedicated to Make a Change Facebook page to stay up to date on everything Prevent and Prevail.

Receiving the funding for Prevent and Prevail is a big step for Dedicated to Make a Change. Thank you Zingerman's!

Celebration and Movie Night

Dedicated to Make a Change hosted another movie night last night. 

Dominick waiting for the movie to start.

About 12 people came to watch Thor and Malibu's Most Wanted. The movie night was a success, but it was clearly overshadowed by the other events in Braun Court. 

Yesterday The US Supreme Court ruled that proposition 8 and a part of DOMA(defense of marriage act) are unconstitutional. This means that same sex couples can now legally get married in California, and that all married couples will be subject to the same federal laws and benefits. This infographic explains the specifics better. As you can imagine, this is a big deal for TBLGQ people and their supporters.  Everyone in Braun Court was smiling. It was impossible not to.

Even the baby is happy.

Dancing went on for hours.

Gail Wolkoff, the owner of Dedicated to Make a Change, was quoted in this article on annarbor.com . She said, “This gives hope to people just starting relationships — they can fall in love and love one another and be valid. This can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Probably more than anything — the idea that love is valid.”

We are Going to Costa Rica

Dedicated to Make a Change is now planning to expand our service trips to Costa Rica. Max has been trying to convince us that we need to go hang out in the sloth sanctuary. Below is the video that finally convinced us that we need to go.

We are still in the very beginning phases, but we are planning to carry baby turtles, baby sloths, and baby humans. The trip will probably happen sometime next year. Subscribe to this blog to stay up to date on all of Dedicated to Make a Change's service trips.

Movie Night #1 Was a Success

Last night was the first of the Dedicated to Make a Change summer movie nights.

Dev was the lead youth coordinator for the event. She worked hard organizing and selling the snacks for the night. Excellent job Dev!

18 wonderful people came to the Jim Toy Center to watch movies, eat ice cream, and have a great time. We watched Zombieland and the Incredibles.

We will be having a movie night on the second Wednesday of the month in July and August. Our next movie night is July 10th. We will be watching Footloose 1 and Despicable Me. Anyone age 12 to 18 is welcome to come.

Our radio show was awesome!

On Tuesday I was on the radio show Reality Strikes along with Carlos, Mia, Debrieana, Chloe, Angela, and Gail. Everyone had a chance to speak and overall the show went very well. I met some cool people(and a cool dog). The hosts Eric Brown and Stuart Boswell seemed  impressed and said they would like to make our appearance on the show a regular thing. Reality Strikes is every first and third Tuesday of the month from 7 to 9. You can hear it at katsentertainment.com. Follow this blog to see when we might be on air next and to stay up to date with all the other great things we are doing!