About Dreamcatchers
Our Program
Dreamcatchers is a six-year commitment that models the Aspirations Incubator program. Dreamcatchers connects young people with caring adults. These relationships help young people grow into resilient, thriving, responsible young adults. The key is that trusting bond between a student and a program manager that lasts a full six years, from seventh grade through graduation.
Rivers & Roads has a close working relationship with MSAD72 and Molly Ockett School in Fryeburg, Maine. Together through the Dreamcatchers program we strive to meet the specific needs and interests of young people in our local community, and develop stronger bonds between students and their school.
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Aspirations Incubator Partnership
The Aspirations Incubator has created a youth development model for raising aspirations of young people in rural Maine.
Over the last 5 years, the Aspirations Incubator has been working to develop strategic partnerships with colleges and universities in Maine to ensure that aspiring high school graduates from rural communities have more opportunities for admission and scholarships. The Aspirations Incubator program successfully increases the resiliency of young people and introduces them to new post-secondary pathways.
How It All Works
ACADEMICS: Dreamcatchers students have the advantage with access to 360 degrees of support during the school day. We provide weekly 1:1 tutoring and 1:1 mentoring for academic & SEL support along with individualized enrichment opportunities.
Meredith and Kayrin are at school bright and early Monday through Friday from 7:45am to 2:30pm to ensure the well-being of our participants.
Collaborating with teachers, school administrators, guidance counselors and principal Matthew Lokken.
Year Round Support
ENRICHMENT: Students in our program will become involved in civic projects. Summer of 2024 our focus is agricultural and culinary inventiveness. Learning how to garden, grow, and cook from experts. Providing delicious and accessible fresh food to those who need it the most. We will work on farms, learn to care for animals, grow vegetables in gardens and greenhouses.
Build, create and re-imagine accessible food resources while we strengthen skills to cultivate, cook, bake and beyond!
Experiential & Travel-Based Education
COMMUNITY: We will travel to other parts of Maine and New England and the world, visiting college campuses along the way. We will engage in a variety of outdoor activities, including camping, skiing, and canoe trips. But what is most important is not the specific program or its activities; it is learning to be part of a community and developing powerful new relationships.
Our Goal
RELATIONSHIPS: Young people form relationships with their adult mentors and other students involved in the program – people outside of their immediate family and social circle with whom they otherwise might never connect. Through these shared experiences and relationships over their six-years in the Dreamcatchers program participants develop the confidence to take on new challenges and dream bigger dreams.
NEW SKILLS, ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES: As students build strong and lasting support systems, their eyes are opened to new possibilities and a wide array of future career opportunities in Maine and throughout the world. These mentoring relationships also help them develop the emotional skills and resilience they will need to not only get to college but to stick with their education and obtain a degree no matter what challenges arise along the way. Dreamcatcher participants also develop the core skills that any future employer will be seeking: leadership, problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills.