Casa Chirilagua Open House

Yesterday, we continued our celebration of Alexandria Mentoring Month with a mentor recruitment event at Casa Chirilagua.  Guests enjoyed coffee and dulces while listening to one Casa family talk about their experience with mentoring.  Mentoring Director Adriana and Local Leader Leydy asked Jose*, his mother Marta*, and his mentor Todd questions about mentoring.

Todd spoke about how mentoring was a lot more natural than he had anticipated, and doesn't require lots of planning or preparing before each session.  Jose's favorite moment with Todd was when they went to Cirque De Soleil Kurios for Jose's birthday.  Marta noted that since getting a mentor, J has been reading more, and she is very happy with having Todd as Jose's mentor.  This year, Todd is most looking forward to going ice skating, while Jose is excited about playing soccer together. The entire interview was conducted in English and Spanish, with participants either speaking in both or Adriana translating.  At the end, guests asked questions, and expressed their gratitude for the wonderful work that Casa Chirilagua and its staff, volunteers, and families are doing!

Read more about Todd and Jose in their Mentor of the Month article in the Alexandria Gazette: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2017/jan/27/mentor-month/

Our next open house is Thursday, January 19, at Wright to Read (414 N. Washington St.)

*Names changed for privacy

Alexandria Mentoring Month!!!

On January 10, January was declared Alexandria Mentoring Month at the monthly city council meeting.  Mayor Allison Silberberg announced the agenda item, noting that council members all wore blue in support of Alexandria's mentoring programs.  Councilman John T. Chapman read the proclamation declaring Alexandria Mentoring Month.  Representatives from The BRYCE Project, Community Lodgings, Space Of Her Own, The Untouchables, and Wright to Read were present to celebrate the proclamation.  

Watch the entire meeting here. 

RARE Open House

Nearly every day after classes end at Francis Hammond Middle School, 6th grade students meet with volunteers to practice math problems, work on grammar, learn code, and more.  This is RARE: a tutoring/group mentoring program sponsored by The Campagna Center.

Yesterday AMP continued its celebration of National Mentoring Month with its another Open House.  Community members interested in volunteering or just curious about youth programs were invited to drop in on RARE and talk to the volunteers, students, and staff involved.

Above: a volunteer helps a student with her language arts worksheet. Right: RARE students wrote down what they love about coming to RARE.

BRYCE Project Open House

Community Service and Youth Enrichment are two of the tenants of the BRYCE Project.  Started four year ago, BRYCE meets on Monday evenings, where high school girls and volunteers gather in a safe space to do service projects.  Members also meet for weekend events.  This past Saturday, BRYCE traveled to the Microsoft store in Pentagon City to take classes on coding and Microsoft Office.

In honor of National Mentoring Month, the Alexandria Mentoring Partnership joined with BRYCE to set up an "Open House" by tabling outside the Microsoft store, and inviting mall goers to go in and see what the mentoring program was up to.