Group Activity: Glass Blowing at Public Glass!

On Saturday morning a group of Friendships gathered at the San Francisco warehouse where Public Glass operates. It was a chilly, grey morning outside, but inside the heat of the furnaces made everything nice and toasty.

In the front of the studio various glass artists had tables displaying their art. There were all kinds of works, from large, intricately colored vases to tiny beadwork. There were festive holiday baubles and beautiful flat plates. Everything was colorful and everything was glass!


After seeing the artwork in front, we moved on to see where all those wonderful pieces were made. Glass artist and facilities manager Evan gave us a very thorough tour, telling us how glass may have first been discovered, showing us the various tools that are needed to shape and expand the glass, and finally sitting us down for a demonstration where an artist made a pumpkin at our request! (See picture).

Mentor Tip of the Week

Go to the park and have a picnic.  Make sandwiches ahead of time or pick up burritos on your way.   Depending on the spot you pick, you might play frisbee or fly a kite or go for a hike before or after.  If you bring an extra bag, you can pick up trash other than yours to help leave the park cleaner than you found it.  Have fun!

Meet Andrew, Our New Intern!

Hello, my name is Andrew and I am the new intern at Friends For Youth. I am a recent graduate from the University of California at Berkeley. At this moment, I am attempting to situate myself financially in hopes that I will find myself in grad school within the next two years. I am excited to be a part of the Friends For Youth organization because I am a firm believer that the youth possess the power to direct our world towards peace. Furthermore, it is our responsibility as adults to exercise patience and love in order to nurture the youth for the better.

As for hobbies, my list is lengthy and still growing! I enjoy outdoor activities such as biking, jogging, hiking, geocaching (never heard of it? I HIGHLY recommend Google-ing it!), swimming, and just being immersed in nature. In contrast, I can also spend hours on end inside with a long novel and a piping hot cup of tea. I am also a HUGE San Francisco sports fan. Here’s to another shot at the World Series!

Intern Perspective: The 25th Annual Peninsula Golf Challenge

By Neha Bhargava

This year Mother Nature was determined to compensate us for all the rain at last year’s event. Monday was an amazing sunny day, but it was unfortunately just a tad bit too hot. To enjoy the great day we had around 100 golfers at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club. One golfer did a handstand in a bucket of ice water to keep cool on the course.

The fun out on the course was followed by a Silent and Live Auction which included items like tickets to the Grammys, Southwest Airlines tickets, vacation trips, and sports memorabilia. 5 friendships showed up to volunteer. They helped us sell prize "crackers" which we used instead of the prize balloons from the past due to the current, global helium shortage. 

One of the most memorable events of the night was our guest speaker Jeff Day who is a former junior friend himself. The night ended with a call for Friendship Pledges from all of our guests and a thank you to the volunteers, staff, and guests who made this event the success it has continued to be for 25 years.

Spotlight Friendship: Christian and Selim

Selim and Christian’s Friendship hit one year this September and man have they been busy! They really took advantage of Friends for Youth group activities and attended some great workshops too. One of the activities they attended include our Annual Holiday Party at Nothing But Hoops. They also participated in a Save the Bay Community Service event and Know Your Legal Rights, a workshop about peaceful interactions with the law. They learned about managing stress at a Life Skills Workshop and all the while found time to fit in rounds of mini golf, visits to the library and  even the arcade! They plan to continue meeting and having fun together!

Cyber Safety!

On Tuesday evening an enthusiastic and intelligent group of Friendships and staff gathered to to discuss our online lives. We shared our experiences and talked about ways to stay safe on the internet.  We drew pictures of what we thought our online life looked like, watched videos of other young people talking about their online lives, and even came up with a list of working rules to apply when we got back to our computers.

We had a lot of fun, and everybody learned something new! (Do you know how many texts a teen sends per month on average? Or what "rofl" means?) If you want to know the answer to these questions and many more, Friends for Youth will be offering a webinar Senior Friend group on this subject in the next quarter. Watch out for our upcoming newsletter to sign up!

Mentor Tip of the Week

Fall starts tomorrow!  Learn about the autumn equinox.  Try some fall activities.  Check out what fruits and vegetables will be coming into season over the next few months.  Also, during this transition time, there are plenty of things to do that might be more like summer than fall.  Explore and have fun!

Exciting Fall Trainings for Mentoring!

Fall is a busy time for most youth mentoring organizations, as many are school- or site-based and use the start of the school year as the kickoff for their programs. Friends for Youth’s Mentoring Institute becomes busy, as well, as we support many local agencies with mentor training and provide technical assistance through webinars and in-person trainings for staff from programs across the U.S.

Here are some highlights from this fall’s lineup:

• From the Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series, August’s webinar focused on Back to School: Training Mentors for Effective Relationships Within School. Check out the recording to learn more about what the research tells us is important for SBM matches and how to align your mentor training to match those needs.
• Co-sponsored by the Center for Applied Research Solutions and Bay Area Mentoring, this upcoming FREE in-person training in Oakland on September 27, 2012 addresses Blogs,Tweets, and Friends: Effective Mentoring in the Age of Social Media. Dustianne North, M.S.W, Ph.D. Candidate and CARS presenter, and I will be talking all about social media and youth, including how to strategize your program’s use of social media for recruitment, marketing, and fundraising, as well as how social media can enhance and detract from relationships within youth-serving programs.
• September’s online workshop from the Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series is The Importance of Closure, featuring Renee Spencer, M.S.S.W., Ed.D., on Thursday, September 20, 2012. In this 75-minute presentation, we’ll be addressing the best ways to handle early match endings and ideas for providing positive closure experiences for successful matches.

Join us this month for the online webinar addressing closure in mentoring relationships on September 20 or in-person for the social media and mentoring workshop on September 27!

Friends for Youth's Mentoring Institute continues to provide in-person and online training for organizations, collaboratives, and volunteers. If your program is in need of training for staff, mentors, or mentees, contact us at 650-559-0200 or info@mentoringinstitute.org and ask about our sliding scale fees. Trainings can be done in person or via Webinar. Online training can be presented through your existing management system or we can host. We look forward to hearing from you!