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Feel Big, Feel Safe, Feel Connected |
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Good News
From St. Stephen's Youth Programs |
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| Fall Update | September 2010 |
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 Our Good News this month includes the 2010 Bishop's Summer Academic and Fun Enrichment (B-SAFE) program, which served more than 530 young people from Boston's and Chelsea's lower income neighborhoods this past summer. We look back for a re-cap of a safe, successful, and satisfying summer. Then, we look forward to our B-READY after-school program, opening this month to serve 180 children and teens in the South End and Lower Roxbury. |
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B-SAFE's  Nine Hundred Helping Hands
Well over nine hundred volunteers made B-SAFE happen this summer, including 850 volunteers from 50+ partner churches, who helped prepare hundreds of lunches and plan Friday field trips outside the city each week. Read more about their amazing efforts and experiences at :
and
Additional B-SAFE volunteers included 25+ teens who volunteered as Counselors-in-Training (CITs) for at least one week and 50+ volunteers who helped with academic rotations and a wide variety of electives and activities. Many, many thanks to all who served with B-SAFE this summer! |
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The Academics of Summer Fun
 A major goal of the B-SAFE program is to prevent the well-documented "summer slide" that can occur in academics during July and August. The challenge is to make learning part of summer fun for kids and not just an extension of their school year. Each summer, B-SAFE finds more and more ways to accomplish this.
Read about two of this summer's favorite programs, Mad Science Day and Globetrotter's Day, at:
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 Good Jobs, Safe Summers for B-SAFE Teens
Another key part of our summer program is providing high quality part-time jobs for teens and young adults ages 15 to 21. Most of our teens work as Counselors-in-Training (CITs) in the B-SAFE program, with older teens and young adults serving as Recreation Specialists and Site Assistants. Read the story of this summer's teens as told by four B-SAFE teen staff coordinators, at:
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B-READY Starts with Service
 On September 11th, a team of 190 volunteers, led by and including many of our B-READY after-school program staff and volunteers, kicked off the school year with a day of service at the Blackstone Elementary school. The Blackstone serves nearly 50 of our after-school program students and was one of 14 schools in the Boston Public Schools designated as a "turnaround" school for the coming school year. The volunteer team cleaned, re-vamped, and re-stocked the school library, which has been out use for more than three years. Many thanks to the Life Together Episcopal internship program for inspiring and facilitating this remarkable day of service. Read more about it at: http://ssypasp.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/the-school-year-begins-with-service/.
Our B-READY after-school program opens Monday, September 21 in the South End at St. Stephen's Church and in Lower Roxbury at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin. 20 adult staff are ready to welcome 180 young people ages 5 to 18! |
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| Upcoming Service Opportunities | |
Seeking Volunteers for Tutoring and Mentoring in Our B-READY After-School Program
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| Closing Thoughts |
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I reflect on another summer gone by. We could not have offered such a strong program to so many young people without the support and involvement of our many friends.
I walked through our parish hall on one of the steaming hot afternoons this summer when it was 93 degrees outside (and felt like 110 inside!) to find a group of 15 middle school students completely engaged in studying DNA with a group of Harvard Medical School students. In that moment, I saw and felt the cumulative success of eleven years of B-SAFE. With your help, we have built a program in which hundreds of young people are not only engaged in safe, fun summer activities, but also in academically challenging work that furthers their education and serves them well when they return to school in the fall.
Now we head into another year of after-school programming, providing support and care for young people every weekday afternoon. Many of our students are attending "turnaround schools", including the Blackstone Elementary School and Orchard Gardens K-8, where efforts are being made to improve drastically the quality of their education. We are partnering with those schools to be part of a long-term solution by reinforcing academic rigor and providing social and emotional support during out-of-school hours. It's an exciting time, and we are pleased to be part of it.
Once again, thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to our kids. We welcome you any time for a visit. Come meet some wonderful young people, and see how together we are all making a difference!
Gratefully, Tim Crellin
Vicar of St. Stephen's Church
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| Contact Information |
The Reverend Timothy Crellin, Vicar of St. Stephen's Church
The Reverend Elizabeth Steinhauser, Director of Youth Programs
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