By Mervyn Myers | Development Director
As we reported three months ago the Project Director of United Planning Organization’s nationally recognized Foster Grandparent Program was contacted by VOA Eurasia Division Voice of America to do a story on UPO’s Foster Grandparent Program for airing in Europe and Asia. The piece focuses on our work at DCPS and Eagle Academy.The video follows the Grandparents in the course of a day.
UPO is pleased to show the partnerships of community, schools and volunteers in shaping the educational experiences of children in the hardest to serve areas. We are putting a positive face on the African-American community in countries that don’t often get positive imagery of our experience in America. Additionally the children featured will forever see themselves a part of a global community and international ambassadors – what a difference will it make in their young lives. The video is now currently being shown in Russian, Ukrainian and English.
Dear supporters of UPO’s Foster Grandparent Program we are so proud of our 200 low-income Washington DC senior volunteer Foster Grandparents who daily, weekly and monthly, provide critical mentoring and emotional support to District children in a variety of local settings. The program operates at 60 locations in the District of Columbia and includes early education centers, public and charter schools, before and after-school programs, youth programs and hospitals. Annually they put in more than 180,000 volunteer service hours – working one-on-one or in small groups mentoring more than 15,000 DC children.
When CBS recently began a series of stories on “A More Perfect Union,” the network was eager to shine a light on the love and learning at the heart of UPO’s Foster Grandparent Program. See the attached video clearly illustrating how our Foster Grandparent volunteers share their love working with the children in the classrooms.
You have all been generous donors, your funding helps us to cover the cost of training, materials, uniforms, and daily travel for our senior FGP volunteers enabling us to support them in their generous labor of love. In addition we have a waiting list of 100 seniors volunteering to be Foster Grandparents, 10 educational institutions are seeking to join the program and every current partnering volunteer site is requesting additional Foster Grandparents.
The timing could not be more perfect;
GlobalGiving has announced one of its biggest Bonus Days ever Thursday July 18, 2019 from 09:00:00 ET to 23:59:59 ET with $250,000 in matching funds available during the campaign:
Donations of $100 - $499 will be matched at 15%
Donations of $500 - $749 USD will be matched at 30%
Donations of $750 - $1,000 USD will be matched at 50%
A perfect opportunity to secure much needed funding to take UPO’s Foster Grandparents Program to the next level! Thank you for your continued generous support.
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