This year’s DREAM Summer School & Camp for 260 at-risk children and adolescents was a great success! We’ve received wonderful coverage in the media. Check out the following article from Dominican Today: http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/poverty/2009/7/28/32734/For-impoverished-Dominican-children-a-DREAM-to-grow We want to say a big thanks to Fabio Guzman, the Guzman Ariza Law Firm, and USAID for all of their support.

We are very pleased by a new addition to the DREAM Team, Gloribelle Hernandez, who will serve as the new Montessori Program Director. She hails from New Jersey and has a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education and Visual Arts from Rutgers University, a Masters Degree in Primary Education from Loyola College, and is AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) certified. Gloribelle is also certified in Elementary Education (K-5). She is fluent in Spanish and English and has a Cuban background. Her role with DREAM will include working directly with Dominican and Haitian teachers to continue training and supporting them in Montessori instruction, working with preschool children, and creating activities centered on creativity and explorative learning.

This month we are re-launching La Libertad as a DREAM Montessori Pre-School and adding a Montessori Classroom in the Abreu Public School. Please join us for the Re-inauguration of La Libertad Montessori School on September 24th.

This fall we will be continuing our Young Stars program (Estrellas Jovenes), which consists of literacy and leadership components that tackle the various needs of Dominican youth. The program will be run in two different communities this year: in Cabarete at the DREAM Center, and in the Batey Caraballo at the Caraballo Community Center. Both of these programs are primarily run by our year-long volunteers and focus on young students that are at risk of dropping out of the public education system. There will be literacy and math classes, which focus on extra-curricular academic support, and Leadership Courses, which are a continuation of Summer Camp Mini-Courses that teach employable leadership skill sets.

This year we have 11 year-long volunteers from across the country, including two certified teachers. They will be working in various posts at the DREAM Center, Puerto Cabarete and at the Caraballo Community Center. Please learn more about our 2009-2010 volunteers at http://www.dominicandream.org/who-makes-the-dream-possible/volunteers.html.

DREAM is excited to be working with the Peace Corps again. They have placed volunteer Renata Sancken with us for the year. Renata will be serving as our IT volunteer and will be running the computer lab at the DREAM Center this fall. We will also be offering additional adult computer and ESL classes at the DREAM Center. Island Impact, a medical nonprofit, will continue their open clinic at the center the last Friday of each month. See www.islandimpact.net for more details about the organization.

DREAM’s commitment to working with local public schools will be continued through the help of two other year-long volunteers. Massiel Santos, who has been volunteering full-time with DREAM since January 2009, will work with the public school teachers from Summer Camp by implementing teacher training in the Colonia Nueva and Puerto Cabarete public schools. We will also be reopening the Puerto Cabarete computer lab this fall. Asahi Wada, another Peace Corps Volunteer, will be working there part-time, running community classes and training teachers in technology. We are very excited to strengthen our partnership with the public schools in Cabarete.

As always, thank you for your support! If you wish to donate, please visit https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=030362565 or send a check to The DREAM Project, PO Box 4136, Ithaca, NY 14852. Feel free to forward this email to family and friends.

Catherine DeLaura

Executive Director

The DREAM Project

Michel Zaleski

Chairman and President

The DREAM Project