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The mission of the Mayor’s Youth and Family Initiative is to unite community resources to strengthen the efforts made by the Miami-Dade County Public School System, with an emphasis on improving student achievement, family involvement, and the student’s learning environment. These initiatives include: mentoring, college scholarships, internships, youth civic engagement programs, after-school programs and many more.
Education Compact:
In September 2005 the City of Miami forged an Education Compact with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to ensure that the academic lives of the children living in the City of Miami are as full and rich academically as they can be. The goal of this partnership is to ensure that every student that graduates from a City of Miami school is fully prepared to enter college or a career. The Education Compact is organized in three major areas: improving academic programs, meeting capital/infrastructure needs, and community involvement. Through the Compact, the Mayor’s Office and M-DCPS collaborate on many initiatives and legislative items in support of public education. The Mayor’s Office and the Superintendent’s Cabinet meet on a monthly basis to work collaboratively on all of the areas within the Education Compact and to explore further grant development opportunities. Furthermore, the Mayor and the Superintendent give regular briefings at the School Board and Commission meetings to make certain that all parties are updated on the status of the Education Compact. For more information on this partnership, contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com.
Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative:
The goal of this initiative is to provide extra support and care for underachieving students. The effort was piloted at Holmes Elementary School, the City’s only “F” elementary school per state guidelines, and is now present in 11 City of Miami elementary schools. The initiative has expanded to include strong partnerships with the Governor’s Office and the Florida Mentoring Partnership. These new alliances will increase mentor recruitment and mentor/mentee matches. Below are the three components of the mentoring initiative:
- City Employee Mentoring: The City of Miami allows all employees one hour each week plus travel time (see the Administrative Policy) to mentor a child in a City school. During the fourth year of this initiative, the Mayor has expanded the effort to include three mentoring agencies: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami, Take Stock in Children and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Expanding the initiative to include these agencies allows employees a variety of different opportunities to get involved. Below is a description of each agency:
- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Elementary School Model “Bigs in School” – School Based Mentoring: Volunteers are paired with a child in local elementary schools and visit for one hour every week during the school year. To become a City Mentor through BBBS simply visit COM_volunteer_application.pdf and print out the application form. Once the form is completed please fax it to Vivianne Bohorques (305) 854-4001.
Take Stock in Children: Middle School Model Middle school students, who have been selected to receive a full college scholarship upon graduation, are paired with a caring mentor. Once cleared by Take Stock in Children and the school board, mentors will meet with their assigned mentee 30-45 minutes a week at a school site of their choice during regular school hours.
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship: High School Model Through entrepreneurship education, NFTE helps young people from low-income communities improve their business, academic and life skills. You can help NFTE bring the real world into the classroom. Opportunities include:
• Business plan coach (once a week for 1-4 weeks)
• Business plan competition judge
• Guest speaking/teaching (1 hour per session)
• Alumni mentor
• NFTE BizDay™ - host a 1-day trade fair for student entrepreneurs
• Host a tour of your company
Each potential volunteer is screened, trained and supervised to help ensure that the mentor-child relationship will be a safe and rewarding experience. If you would like more information and would like to attend a training session contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com
Faith-Based Mentoring Program: Through the Mayor’s Faith-Based Initiative, the Mayor’s Office is partnering with the faith-based organizations to provide mentoring opportunities for congregation members to mentor children in Big Brothers Big Sisters’ school-based or community-based programs. As part of this initiative, the opportunity will also be available to youth, over the age of 14, to mentor a younger child and earn community service hours. If your organization would like to participate in this program, Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com
Mayor’s Mentoring Council: The mentoring council is made up of local businesses, mentoring agencies, faith-based organizations and City staff. The goal of this council is to reach out to different businesses and organizations and encourage them to create a mentoring policy for their employees in order to increase the number of mentors in the City schools. If you are interested in participating in the Mentoring Council, contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com
Collaborators:
Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Mentoring Resource Center: (305)644-0066/ http://www.bbbsmiami.org/
Contact: Adam Effertz – aeffertz@bbbsmiami.org
Merle Wexler – mwexler@bbbsmiami.org
Take Stock in Children: (305) 237-3952/ http://www.takestockinchildren.com/
Contact: Stephanie Floris - sfloris@takestockstaff.com
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship: (305) 665-1141/ www.nfte.com
Contact: Anndell Quintero:Anndell.quintero@nfte.com
Florida Mentoring Partnership: www.flamentoring.org
Volunteer Florida Foundation: http://www.volunteerflordafoundation.org/
Miami-Dade County Public Schools: http://www.dadeschools.net/
Executive PASS Program:
This is a mentoring program through the Council for Educational Change which matches a school principal with a corporate leader to work on targeted school improvement and increased student achievement. This program has shown great success throughout the state of Florida. Last school year there were only three Executive PASS partnerships in the City of Miami. The Mayor has worked closely with the Council for Educational Change and Miami-Dade County Public Schools to identify and recruit business leaders to participate in this program and as a result 10 new matches have been made in the City of Miami. The Mayor hopes to increase the number of partnerships in the City and is currently seeking to match 6-8 business leaders with principals in City of Miami schools. If you are interested in serving as a leadership mentor, contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com.
Collaborators:
Council for Educational Change: (954) 727-9909/ http://www.changeeducation.org/
Contact: Dr. Elaine Liftin – eliftin@changeeducation.org
Miami-Dade County Public Schools: http://www.dadeschools.net/
Internship Program:
The Mayor’s Office is currently working with the City of Miami’s Employee Relations Department and Miami-Dade County Public Schools to establish an internship program for high school students in the City of Miami. The internship program will be guided by a structured curriculum that could earn the students credits as they reflect and report back on their experiences. The process would include the development of a resume, interview process and evaluation process. The program would correlate directly with M-DCPS’ Secondary School Reform. If you would like to open the doors of your business for internship opportunities, contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317.
Collaborators:
Miami-Dade County Public Schools : http://www.dadeschools.net/
Contact : Millie Fornell – (305) 995-2011 or mfornell@dadeschools.net
Adopt-A-Classroom Initiative:
Adopt-A-Classroom, a non-profit organization, began as a community collaborator in the Mayor’s efforts at Holmes Elementary School. The organization brings money ($500.00 per classroom) directly into teachers’ hands for the purchasing of teaching materials. During the first year of the City initiative, $20,000.00 was brought into City schools. The second year brought $100,000.00. The Mayor’s ultimate goal is to have every classroom within the City adopted. When this goal is accomplished, it will bring one million dollars into City of Miami schools. For more information on this initiative go to http://www.adoptaclassroom.com/ or contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317
Collaborators:
Adopt-A-Classroom: (305)674-4470 / http://www.adoptaclassroom.com/
Contact: James Rosenberg – jrosenberg@adoptaclassroom.com
School Beautification:
In an effort to incorporate the Mayor’s Clean Up Miami Campaign with his work in the City schools, the Mayor has kicked off a City Beautification Campaign that will include the beautification of key identified schools within City of Miami neighborhoods. The identification of the schools will focus on information provided by the Zone School Administration. The effort to beautify schools began at Holmes Elementary School when the Mayor’s Office, along with Hands on Miami, worked on several efforts to assist in the beautification of Holmes. The Mayor has decided to focus on Zone schools on the original premise that underachieving schools need the utmost level of community support. For more information on this initiative, contact Vivianne Bohorques at (305) 250-5317 or vbohorques@miamigov.com.
Collaborators:
Hands On Miami: (305)646-7200 / http://www.handsonmiami.org/
Contact: Pat Morris – pat@handsonmiami.org
Citizens for a Better South Florida: (305)648-0000 / http://www.abettersouthflorida.org/
Contact: Edith McClintock – emcclintock@abettersouthflorida.org
Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ The Zone – http://www.dadeschools.net/
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