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DREAAM is hosting a coat drive! We have 25 so far, but we are in need of 50. You can sign up to purchase a coat on our main page: dreaam.org or by clicking the link below. New coats will be distributed on Saturday, Nov. 20th during a Thanksgiving Giveaway in partnership with the Foster Grandparent Program of the Wayne McClain Pipeline Foundation. Since coats will be distributed on the 20th, we are in need of those new coats by Thursday, Nov. 18th. Can you help? Sign up by November 12th here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLE9o5BYCCJgyndJa7kCTUdmxXVoHXCGZ3o8aCP7pLdQSS-A/viewform Thank you!!!

We are so grateful for all who came out and supported DREAAM and our inaugural Dream Big! Fall Festival on October 16, 2021! We are inspired by our community and they way everyone came together to celebrate DREAAM’s first 6 years and to build HOPE for the FUTURE for our children here in Champaign County and beyond. Thank you friends, volunteers, DREAAM families, and all who helped make this vision a beautiful and humbling success! We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate kids and families of DREAAM! We are so GRATEFUL for YOU! Let's continue to DREAM BIG!

...by participating in our inaugural Dream Big! Fall Festival Silent Auction! Our DREAAMers are counting on you! Our inaugural Dream Big! Fall Festival is just 8 days away! But our Dream Big! Fall Festival SILENT AUCTION opens TODAY, OCTOBER 8 AT NOON! Please help us reach our goal of raising $25,000! Here's how: 1. Register for the silent auction and get ready to bid! We have some incredible items and trip packages up for grabs! You can get a sneak peek by clicking "I'm already registered" here. For those of you who cannot make the event in person, you can bid from home or anywhere! Admission is FREE and you can join the action anytime before bidding ends at 2:45 PM CST on the 16th! REGISTER HERE FOR THE SILENT AUCTION! 2. Purchase raffle tickets! You can purchase raffle tickets ahead of time and pick them up at the event. At the event, you can pick and choose which raffles you would like to enter! There are many items to win, such as restaurant gift cards, floral arrangements, meal kits, and more! MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE RAFFLE TICKETS. 3. DONATE! You can ALWAYS help fund our mission! By donating to DREAAM's Dream Big! Fall Festival and helping us reach our goal of $25,000, you're helping us open our new DREAAM Beginners Pre-K Program and also continue to provide healing-centered, educational programming for our DREAAMers. DONATE NOW! Winners of our silent auction will be announced at 3:30pm on our Facebook page! Here are some helpful answers to your silent auction questions: https://intercom.help/networkforgood/en/articles/5497774-auctions-faq-common-bidder-questions

DREAAM's Dream Big! Fall Festival is a celebration of our first six years and our amazing community! And YOU ARE INVITED!!! Join us for fun for the whole family! DREAAM's Dream Big! Fall Festival will have many exciting activities, including pumpkin decorating, lots of games, music, performances by our DREAAMers and other entertainment, food trucks, raffles, a silent auction, photo booth, and much more. Special guests will be dropping in throughout the event. You won't want to miss it!!! Proceeds from our Dream Big! Fall Festival will help fund our new DREAAM Beginners Pre-Kindergarten Program, which will be piloted for the first year beginning November 1st, 2021. This program will provide multi-generational education and socio-emotional developmental opportunities to impact both the child and the guardian. Check out more about the event and RSVP here! https://dreaam.networkforgood.com/events/33495-dream-big-fall-festival

Since mentoring is an important aspect of DREAAM, we wanted to share an important message from MENTOR National. As the mentoring field is continually growing and evolving, so must research about mentoring. MENTOR, the national champion for the mentoring movement, recently released its latest Research Agenda outlining four key areas to meet the emerging needs of the field and inform funders and policymakers about how the mentoring movement can be strengthened. The agenda lays out these priorities as focus areas: Increase research on the role of mentoring in supporting youth identity development and combating loneliness and isolation. Study innovative strategies to expand the opportunities for mentoring relationships that occur naturally within systems and institutions. Increase actionable research on mentoring that occurs in diverse programmatic settings. Invest in more research on the societal-level changes that are produced by mentoring relationships. Mike Garringer, MENTOR’s Director of Research and Evaluation, says, “MENTOR was honored to work with so many researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders on this project, and we look forward to sharing it with a range of stakeholders so we can continue to inform our movement and support young people wherever they are.” “By putting forth this agenda," he says, “we can ensure that our mentoring research is actionable, and that the resulting resources and tools bridge the gap from research to practice.” To learn more about MENTOR and the research surrounding the mentoring movement, contact Mike Garringer.

DREAAM is partnering with Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center to bring you the Champaign-Urbana Drill Team! But we need your help. We have a few more spots to fill, so please help us get the word out. Do you know any kids at Champaign Unit 4 middles schools that are interested in dance, cheerleading, or drums? Invite them to check us out! For more information, please contact jessica@dreaam.org or (217) 600-1578.

Oh what a fun-filled and inspiring few weeks we had at our five Dream Big! summer locations! Enjoy these photos of all the special memories we made!

It's a work of art! And you can grab your copy here! During our Dream Big! Summer Program, our DREAAM Girls tribe put their heart and soul into a special project. And in the end, they were able to create this beautiful book with a collection of all their hard work! We have a limited number of copies available for a donation of $15 or more, so grab your copy now at https://bit.ly/3xagkml and make sure to designate DREAAM Girls in the drop down menu. We are so proud of our DREAAM Girls!

DREAAM has been busy with our Dream Big! Summer Program and so much more. Read all about it in our newsletter here.

DREAAM's Dream Big! Summer Program started this week, and as you can imagine, the beauty of our DREAAMers shined through on Day 1! We'll have many upon many fun and inspiring stories that will come out of these next few weeks, but we have a beautiful and powerful one to share with you from our first week. To kick off our summer session, our DREAAMers started creating an "About Me" art piece. These photos show our DREAAMers having an emotional moment as they spoke life-giving affirmations to themselves in a mirror. As one of the boys started saying his affirmations to himself in the mirror, he started crying. When our staff member asked him to share his feelings, he said, "This is hard because I never hear positive affirmations about me. This is the first time I've spoken affirmations to myself." This moment immediately blessed our staff member. When he shared this moment with the rest of the staff, it blessed us all. And we hope by sharing it with you, you will be blessed by this beautiful moment. Truly, it starts with you. Speak positive, life-giving affirmations to yourself. You are worthy. You are beautiful. You are amazing... And you can change the world. Believe in yourself and see where life can take you!

You're invited to the Kappa Kappa Gamma 51st Annual Flower Sale, with proceeds going to DREAAM!!! "The motivated kids from DREAAM (Driven to Reach Excellence and Academic Achievement for Males) will have a role at the colorful and sweet-smelling fundraiser on April 30 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and May 1 (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at Indian Acres Swim Club in Champaign." Read more in The News Gazette article here... https://www.news-gazette.com/coronavirus/top-of-the-morning-april-14-2021/article_f702baf4-64fb-55f7-a751-2777d5a93787.html?fbclid=IwAR3IRHC40fGzMSUxtHpRhhurji0G3c1FKcbszOi3EYu5ODQ1nHS8dU8Nq0Q

Our DREAAMers visited the home of DREAAM volunteers, Larry Lister & Vanessa Lane, this week, to learn about Mardi Gras and the culture around the celebration. Laissez le bon temps rouler means let the good times roll in English, and DREAAMers sure know how to have a good time...that is, after all their school work has been completed, of course! Read more about this fun visit and Mardi/Yardi Gras in The News-Gazette article... https://bit.ly/3ay1UDC