Spreading the Word at New Employee Orientation

Every month, the City of Alexandria holds a day long orientation for new employees.  Staring on February 15, the Alexandria Mentoring Partnership will now be present at the orientation during the hour-long lunch break, to talk to new employees and inform them of the many opportunities available in the city.  

For instance, city employees can use one hour of their forty hour work week to volunteer.  AMP has begun a campaign to make city employees more aware of this policy.  Volunteering within the city allows new employees a chance to get to know Alexandria better.  It is also a great way to be more involved in the community, and mentoring specifically gives the opportunity to learn about the city from a local youth.  

Tabling at New Employee Orientation also spreads the word about AMP.  We currently work with many city departments, but are always looking for new partnerships and ways to work with the city in order to better serve our programs, mentors, and mentees. 

National Mentoring Month 2017

From everyone at the Alexandria Mentoring Partnership - staff, programs, mentors, mentees, volunteers, community partners, and the City of Alexandria - we thank all those who participated in National Mentoring Month this year, and our first Alexandria Mentoring Month!

Stay up to date with AMP by subscribing to our mailing list.

Interested in becoming a mentor?  Book an informational phone call with us to figure out which of our 11 programs would be best for you!  

Community Lodgings Open House

"Community Lodgings’ mission is to lift families from homelessness and instability to independence and self-sufficiency through Transitional Housing, Affordable Housing and our Youth Education Programs."

When most people think of Community Lodgings, they think of the transitional and affordable housing programs that help the homeless and low-income families of Alexnadria get back on their feet and move towards a brighter future.  What many don't know is that Community Lodgings also provide youth education programs that prepare children for self-sufficiency as adults.  These programs include after school academic support, as well as mentoring.  

On Monday evenings in the neighborhood of Chirilagua, students from grades 7 through 12 meet in the two Community Lodgings offices (girls in one office, boys in another).  Last Monday, AMP stopped by the boys program, in the basement of a neighborhood apartment building, where many of the students live.  As the boys and mentors gathered, two students moved to tables on the edge of the room to finish tests and homework due the following day, before joining everyone else in the activities.  First, the boys and mentors took turns reading from A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.  Next, everyone joined in to work on a puzzle.  

Every week brings new activities, but the same faces to Community Lodgings.  As we went to meet the mentors, we recognized them and about half the mentors from the 2015 Community Lodgings video.  The boys have grown older, the mentors more experienced, but Community Lodgings remains a safe and fun place to spend a Monday evening! 

Elodie from Space Of Her Own

Rebecca and Elodie met through the SOHO program back in 2014. On the first day of the program, they were sitting together and immediately had a great connection. Rebecca is from El Salvador originally and is very interested in other cultures and Elodie is from France and loves to share her love for international travel. Rebecca quickly asked Elodie to talk to her about her country, cultural differences and what language people speak in France. Elodie also wanted to find out about Rebecca’s original country of El Salvador. A friendship quickly built from there.

Each Thursday evening, they met through the SOHO program and worked on art projects together, including painting, making pillows, ceramics, and other projects with the objective to create a space for Rebecca in her home. At the end of the program, Rebecca was sharing a room with her brother and made her “corner” her own space with crafts she had worked on all year long with Elodie along with some new fun things they bought together.

After two years of starting the program, Elodie and Rebecca have a close friendship and see each other on a regular basis to see movies, go to coffee, do some shopping or just talk about school, life, and everything in between. As Elodie says, “Rebecca has brought so much more to my life than I had ever imagined. We have a very strong bond that I plan to cherish for life”. Elodie was so happy when Rebecca told her that she had decided to take French in middle school and promised Rebecca to take her to Europe when she graduates from high school.

This article was previously published in the Alexandria Gazette,  http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2017/feb/10/mentor-week-cross-cultural-connection/