From left, Governor Phil Scott, Ethan, and Rajnii Eddins.

Mentor pair Rajnii and Ethan went to Montpelier, VT last week for the Mobius Mentors Mentoring Celebration at the statehouse, and they had a blast!

Rajnii Eddins, of Bless the Child, and Ethan kicked off the ceremony at the statehouse with a Mentor Rap. They taught the audience how it went, and then performed it.

They also got to meet Governor Phil Scott, who read a Mentoring Month proclamation at the event. Rajnii, Ethan, and the rest of the audience also celebrated Emily Bellmore, who was named Comcast’s Mentor of the Year. Congratulations, Emily!

Here’s the song that Rajnii wrote and that he and Ethan performed at the mentoring celebration:

Say I will succeed… 3x (All: I will succeed)
I keep it positive in my thoughts, words, and deeds.

It’s a special dedication
A mentorship celebration
Not even sky’s the limit
So get your education
Thank every one of y’all
for your participation
Without that affirmation
Life can be intimidating
What you do for the youth
Is a demonstration
Changing negative
to positive situations
Honestly that’s the reason
We commemorating
Say, the youth is the truth
That’s why I give you praises
A simple token of my esteem
For your living greatness
So let me celebrate our mentorship connection
Everybody Wins, we in the same Spectrum.

Say I will succeed… 3x
I keep it positive in my thoughts, words, and deeds.

All of you here
let your light be magnified
Reading and feeding the mind
Voices amplified
Your thirst for knowledge has a never-ending appetite
Keep pursuing, and soon your dreams will have arrived
Everybody needs some support displayed
Time spent with youth can go a long way
Time on the courts
Bonding, playing sports
Science and mathematics
Applying mental mechanics
Art from the heart
Plays its part on the canvas
Tutoring the students
Rebooting the true computer
Mentorships attentive to community improvement
I believe you’ll do it
cause you here to show and prove it.

Say I will succeed… 3x
I keep it positive in my thoughts, words, and deeds.

Rajnii and Ethan lead a mentoring rap.

Interested in becoming a mentor? Learn more or email Lee Ann Donner at ldonner@spectrumvt.org.

The post “I will succeed!” appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

One of the youth who accesses our Drop-In Center wrote this article about a recent cooking contest we held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at the top of Church Street in Burlington, VT, and we wanted to share it with you!

Different kitchen, different ingredients

4 teams, 3 rounds, 2 winners, 1 day

In November, six individuals from Spectrum Drop-In participated in the first ever “Chopped,” based off of the cooking show on The Food Network.

The event was held in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Burlington and lasted a total of 3 hours.

Tensions ran high within the first few minutes as contestants were forced to work together to locate tools and ingredients for their recipes.

Coming in with a wide range of culinary experience, many chefs surprised themselves with the final results of their work. Prizes were awarded to each contestant at the end of the competition. Participants are hoping for another round of Chopped sometime in the winter or early spring.

How it works:

Each round presented the chefs with unconventional ingredients to incorporate into their creations, which had to be cooked or baked and plated with reasonable presentation within a set time limit ranging from 15-30 minutes.

One team was eliminated at the end of each round. The contestants’ creations were judged based on taste, presentation, and creativity.

The entrée course in progress.

The winning dessert, incorporating graham crackers and chocolate fudge.

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“I’m always confident when I team with Danni that her young adults will not only be served well—but served with the utmost respect and dignity. She’s an all-star.” – Amanda Moore, Social Worker, South Burlington High School

Danni Pratt, one of our JOBS Clinicians, received the Promising Professional award at the KidSafe Outstanding Service Awards on April 28th, 2016.

Danni has been working in the JOBS program for over three years. With your support, Danni utilizes her skills, instinct, and caring practice to help young adults successfully transition to adulthood. Danni builds solid, trusting relationships that make her clients feel empowered and capable.

At the KidSafe luncheon, Danni’s supervisor, Gina D’Ambrosio, Coordinator of the JOBS program, offered these kind words:

“I’m so thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to recognize the amazing work of Danni Pratt. Her commitment, hard work, professionalism, and amazing skills have made an impact on many young lives. She gets the complexities of navigating the world for the adolescents she serves, who are remarkable despite the challenges and obstacles they face. In trying to capture how much of an impact she had made, I fell short of finding the right words to articulate her work. So I decided to ask her clients.”

With your support, these clients are getting help from Danni to turn their lives around:

“Danni has been very fun to work with. She is always flexible to meet, whether it is in person or over the phone. She has helped me with anything from finding a job to just having an open ear when I need to talk. She has also helped me find some other supports through Spectrum counseling. If it was not for Danni, I would probably not have the current job that I have and also some of the other supports that I have. I always look forward to meeting with Danni every week and she helps to keep me on track with my goals.”
– JOBS client

“Danni was super, super kind to me. We went out for coffee which was awesome. She helped me do a job shadow at Petra Cliffs, and with her help that turned into my first job. She was awesome.”
– former JOBS client

Congratulations, Danni!

“Danni really was a big help for me . . . I could actually count on her.” – former JOBS client

The JOBS program is a collaboration with the Howard Center, Spectrum Youth & Family Services, and VocRehab Vermont. JOBS helps youth, ages 14-26, with multiple barriers, to find and keep employment, to understand and utilize resources, and to learn and build skills needed for successful independence.

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Jeetan Khadka pictured with youth from the Burlington group Diversity Rocks

Jeetan Khadka is one of our staff at Spectrum, and he is also one of the key organizers of Diversity Rocks, a multicultural youth group based in Burlington.  Diversity Rocks put together a 3-minute video featuring young Vermonters from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrating the attributes that both unite and differentiate them.

The video won two awards recently — a first-place prize in the “Media Outreach” category and a third-place prize for the “Audience” category — from the Maryland-based Excellence in Community Communications and Outreach program.

See their video below — you’ll be inspired. Congratulations, Diversity Rocks!

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