Happy Summer!

This month has been busy. New Venture Teams have continually launched and we are finalizing everything as the school year wraps up this week. What was especially exciting this month is that we launched Mountain Lions Basketball Club , a college Venture Team from Mount Wachusett Community College that raises money to help lower the cost of youth basketball, AND and an elementary school Venture called, The Venture Kids , a South Street Elementary school-wide venture that helps the homeless in their community, both in the same week! Young people from ALL ages are getting inspired to bring positive change to their communities.

We also held the very exciting Changemaker Celebration at Wachusett Mountain on June 12, culminating the pilot year of Ashoka’a Changemaker Education Framework that aims to foster leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and empathy in students on an individual, systemic, and ecosystemic level. The night emphasized the importance of human connection with teachers , trying new things and overcoming failure, and youth’s ability to impact their community. Retiring Fitchburg Public Schools superintendent, Andre Ravenell, talked about the need for a better evaluation system and left advice for administrators, “get out of the way, don’t judge what people say as they say it, and encourage.” What a great night!

UWYV is still accepting applications for two Commonwealth Corps Service Internship (paid) positions ! Click here to learn more about these incredible opportunities to serve with UWYV!

Would you be willing to help us out? We have a goal of gaining 400 Twitter followers by June 27th and we are short of that goal at the current moment. Would you be willing to " Follow " UWYV? We post updates about what our Venture Teams are update and share inspirational stories. We would greatly appreciate a quick Follow if you would be so kind. THANK YOU!



Last we want to wish a very Happy Summer and a heartfelt "Thank You" to all of our school Champions and Allies, Administrators, Teachers and Staff. You make a difference in the lives of all the students you support and we wouldn't have been able to launch as many teams and support as many students without your help. It is greatly appreciated.

As always, we appreciate all of our readers and we are very grateful for your continued support of our program. Thank you!

~the United Way Youth Venture Team!

The Last of Panel Season!

There were 17 Venture Teams that launched across 10 schools from May 21st through June 20th! Schools included a college, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. Combined, the Teams secured $7,460 in seed funding from UWYV to help get their Ventures off the ground and hold their first fundraisers.

We are extremely proud of all the Venturers who launched this month. Congratulations to Venture Teams from MWCC, Overlook Middle School, Goodrich Academy, Longsjo Middle School, McKay Arts Academy, Sky View Middle School, Murdock Middle School, Parker Charter School, Toy Town Elementary, and South Street Elementary. And, we want to acknowledge all the great things our previously launched teams accomplished this school year.

Congratulations to our newest teams!

Please visit our webpage to learn more about each new team!

Our Northwest Elementary School Venture Team, Northwest Bulldogs, hosted a school-wide toy drive to collect items and distribute to pediatric patients at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. Students in each grade had a different category of toy to bring in (stuffed animal, squishy toy, Play-doh, Hot Wheels car or Barbie doll), and for each item students brought in, they received a raffle ticket to win a gift card. Northwest Bulldogs collected enough items to fill 122 bags! And yesterday they made the donations to each organization. We are so proud of the hard work and commitment to helping others of this young team.

Interested in writing for the official UWYV blog? Our audience wants to hear from YOU!

The Venturer Voice blog seeks student, Champion, Ally and community contributors to write pieces for our new official blog!

Learn about how to get involved here.

Do you have a UWYV story that you would like to see featured in YV Monthly?

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