Summer Programs

One of the intrinsic challenges of our college-based mentoring program is bridging the summer, when many mentors having other commitments away from school is combined with children having much more free time. Our goal, whether it is through one-on-one Village Mentoring™ partnerships or memorable culminating experiences is to provide the children of DREAM with a supportive environment replete with experiences that will help grow into their limitless potential. To this end, DREAM, Inc has a Summer Programs office that offers support for High Adventure, TripScape, on-site summer programming and other special projects.

High Adventure (HA)

Imagine walking into a room and telling a group of kids that they can plan a trip to anywhere they want to go... and mean it. Well, that's High Adventure.

Summer is home to one of the greatest challenges that older DREAMers (ages 11-15) take on: planning, fundraising and following through with an incredible trip to a far-away place. Past High Adventures have taken wide-eyed Vermonters to the Rockies of Colorado and the Arches of Utah. The Summer Programs Office serves as a resource to the mentors of each Local Program planning a HA by helping develop budgets, developing networks that span thousands of miles, ensuring appropriate risk management measures and keeping a big picture focus for each group over the months of preparation involved.

It is often said that High Adventure is more than a two-week trip; it’s a community-building project that involves mentors, parents, kids and sponsors over the whole year. More details...

Tripscape

Not to let the older DREAM children have all the fun, some of the younger kids (ages 8-11) set out on overnight camping trips throughout New England, including places like Mt. Washington, Mt. Mansfield, Camel's Hump, and many other exciting natural wonders in both the nearby Green Mountains and White Mountains.

Each fun-filled trip is co-led by one of the DREAM Inc. staff and a Summer Intern from one of the local programs. More details...

On-site Summer Programming

DREAM is proud to employ a crew of incredible Summer Interns who each oversee an community’s on-site summer program offering. In the spring, planning begins to develop a network of organizations and individuals who can provide a broad spectrum of activities for the variety of age groups that DREAM serves. Programming can include community gardens, service projects, softball leagues, day hikes, book-reading and dog walking, to name a few.

Special Projects

Throughout the summer, different individuals can make ideas for exciting summer programming reality using the resources available. These are incorporated into on-site programming and can often combine two ore more programs. One example a pilot eMentoring project that will use email in a structured, supervised environment, provided by the on-site Summer Interns, to facilitate communication between partners over the summer.

One of the most exciting projects that DREAM is tackling is Camp DREAM. Our vision is to provide every DREAM child age 8 to 17 with an amazing week of camp programming on our property in Fletcher, Vermont. More camp details...