My Place Teen Center
Donation protected
REQUEST
We are seeking $151,458 for 10 weeks of summer programming ($126,458) and $25,000 to FINISH our kitchen and dining room renovation. Your gift will help provide our kids with a structured, supervised curriculum focusing on 21st century skill building and positive youth development including daily homework assistance, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programming, service learning, financial literacy, mentoring, physical fitness, the arts, cooking and nutrition, social and life skills training, leadership skills, higher education/job acquisition support, and mental health first aid.
WHO WE ARE
My Place Teen Center (MPTC) is a year round, free, out-of-school time program(five hours/day) for youth, ages 10-18. Serving all youth, but specializing in youth most at risk including disabled, homeless, food insecure, cognitively-delayed, low-income, immigrant, and refugee teens, MPTC offers a multi-purpose, academically enriching, life-skills enhancing, hunger relieving, youth development program that has been the focal point of greater Portland’s teen activities since its inception in 1998.
MISSION
My Place Teen Center provides a safe haven for youth ages 10 – 18, sustaining them with comfort, meals, resources, and hope.
VISION
All youth will have the academic, job readiness, and life skills necessary to lead independent adult lives filled with stewardship, courage, passion, and joy.
OPERATING BUDGET
$641,710 - FY 2014/2015
REGION
Southern Maine
KIDS SERVED
500+ different youth; 60-90 kids/day; year-round; 14,500 meals.
OUR BUSINESS MODEL IS SIMPLE
We are in the business of transforming lives; and in some cases, saving lives. To this end, we are driven to respond to the urgent need to get kids to stay in school, yearn for something beyond their present moment, and to accept social responsibility.
OUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY IS STRAIGHTFORWARD
We function with a non-profit heart and operate with a corporate mind-set.
OUR DIVIDENDS BACK TO SHAREHOLDERS
Healthy, educated, independent, civic-oriented teens = a future, motivated, educated workforce.
OUR GOALS
1. Youth will be safe, feel loved, and get fed.
2. Youth will develop appropriate interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, reduce problem behaviors, and gain self-esteem.
3. Youth will increase their social and emotional development by increasing their engagement and sense of belonging, by providing opportunities for their voice and leadership, and by building stronger connections with their families, schools, and communities.
4. Youth will improve school attendance and behavior, foster better study habits, and increase student achievement and graduation rates.
Our work seeks to address three fundamental challenges for youth most at risk: (1) being the recipient of insidious and overt unkindness; (2) poverty as a systemic way of life and a “means to an end;” and, (3) not speaking the “same” language. Compassion, manners, camaraderie, stepping up, leading with integrity, and having a strategic vision for adulthood are the pavers for a strong foundation, and this is what we are teaching our kids at MPTC. Our everyday work helps extraordinary kids and their families to lead more ordinary lives. That acquired ordinariness begets magic, hope, and resilience with a future trajectory that just soars.
Thank you so much!
Donna Dwyer, Executive Director
We are seeking $151,458 for 10 weeks of summer programming ($126,458) and $25,000 to FINISH our kitchen and dining room renovation. Your gift will help provide our kids with a structured, supervised curriculum focusing on 21st century skill building and positive youth development including daily homework assistance, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programming, service learning, financial literacy, mentoring, physical fitness, the arts, cooking and nutrition, social and life skills training, leadership skills, higher education/job acquisition support, and mental health first aid.
WHO WE ARE
My Place Teen Center (MPTC) is a year round, free, out-of-school time program(five hours/day) for youth, ages 10-18. Serving all youth, but specializing in youth most at risk including disabled, homeless, food insecure, cognitively-delayed, low-income, immigrant, and refugee teens, MPTC offers a multi-purpose, academically enriching, life-skills enhancing, hunger relieving, youth development program that has been the focal point of greater Portland’s teen activities since its inception in 1998.
MISSION
My Place Teen Center provides a safe haven for youth ages 10 – 18, sustaining them with comfort, meals, resources, and hope.
VISION
All youth will have the academic, job readiness, and life skills necessary to lead independent adult lives filled with stewardship, courage, passion, and joy.
OPERATING BUDGET
$641,710 - FY 2014/2015
REGION
Southern Maine
KIDS SERVED
500+ different youth; 60-90 kids/day; year-round; 14,500 meals.
OUR BUSINESS MODEL IS SIMPLE
We are in the business of transforming lives; and in some cases, saving lives. To this end, we are driven to respond to the urgent need to get kids to stay in school, yearn for something beyond their present moment, and to accept social responsibility.
OUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY IS STRAIGHTFORWARD
We function with a non-profit heart and operate with a corporate mind-set.
OUR DIVIDENDS BACK TO SHAREHOLDERS
Healthy, educated, independent, civic-oriented teens = a future, motivated, educated workforce.
OUR GOALS
1. Youth will be safe, feel loved, and get fed.
2. Youth will develop appropriate interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, reduce problem behaviors, and gain self-esteem.
3. Youth will increase their social and emotional development by increasing their engagement and sense of belonging, by providing opportunities for their voice and leadership, and by building stronger connections with their families, schools, and communities.
4. Youth will improve school attendance and behavior, foster better study habits, and increase student achievement and graduation rates.
Our work seeks to address three fundamental challenges for youth most at risk: (1) being the recipient of insidious and overt unkindness; (2) poverty as a systemic way of life and a “means to an end;” and, (3) not speaking the “same” language. Compassion, manners, camaraderie, stepping up, leading with integrity, and having a strategic vision for adulthood are the pavers for a strong foundation, and this is what we are teaching our kids at MPTC. Our everyday work helps extraordinary kids and their families to lead more ordinary lives. That acquired ordinariness begets magic, hope, and resilience with a future trajectory that just soars.
Thank you so much!
Donna Dwyer, Executive Director
Organizer
Donna Dwyer
Organizer
Westbrook, ME
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