Our Program

City of Dreams has created a unique program designed specifically to help young people living in low income neighborhoods learn how to create the life they want by discovering who they are.

GOALS
We expand youths’ perspectives and encourage them to develop their own sense of identity, independent of peer pressure and other external forces that can be pitfalls to healthy development. We help them uncover hidden talents and interests, identify dreams and goals, discover and explore new surroundings, think critically, and shape a future of their own design.

The key to reaching those objectives is to build kids’ developmental assets. One of the key, measureable effects of strong developmental assets is avoidance of risky behaviors. Four important high-risk areas for adolescents are truancy, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol use, and gang activity and violence. Studies show that young people with more assets are less likely to engage in patterns of high-risk behavior and more likely to report having positive attitudes and behaviors.(*1*) Thus we gauge the effectiveness of our work by our youths’ outcomes in these areas:

• High school graduation
• No teen pregnancy
• Freedom from drugs and alcohol, and• Avoidance of gangs and gang violence.

(*1*) The Search Institute 2008 [online] www.search-institute.org

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The City of Dreams program
Builds kids’ developmental assets…
Through fun and challenging experiential learning events…
That teach 12 Essential Life Lessons…
With the support of caring, trained mentors.

• Our central focus is on building kids’ developmental assets – positive experiences and qualities that reduce the probability of drug use, violence, truancy, and teen pregnancy, and help kids become caring, responsible adults.

• Through the 60 Experiential Learning Events we provide each year, kids learn to solve problems, overcome fears, work as a team, try new things, explore creativity, embrace support, and identify their options. They make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves, instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others. Experiential Learning Events include challenge ropes courses, camping, museum visits, golfing, sailing, organic farming, skiing, and rock climbing. We also host Community Development Days as a way for our kids to learn to give back to the community.

• We nurture adolescents’ emotional and social development by providing a curriculum of “12 Life Lessons.”

1. Trust: Believe in yourself and others
2. Resilience: Failing isn’t failure
3. Accountability/Responsibility: Small actions add up
4. Teamwork: Work together
5. Respect: RESPECT yourself and others
6. Choice: Choices shape our lives
7. Hope: Anything is possible
8. Self Esteem: I AM
9. Contribution: You can make a difference
10. Love: Love without Limits
11. Integrity: What you do when no one else is watching
12. Gratitude: Be thankful for what you have

• Experienced, trained mentors support each kid in City of Dreams. Mentors help their kids “connect the dots” between what they encounter in Experiential Learning Events, and the life lessons embedded in those events. Through journaling and reflection with their mentors, kids develop new skills, new attitudes, and new ways of thinking.

• Our Junior Mentorship Program is available to kids to complete the basic two-year program and display maturity, leadership, and willingness to share what they’ve learned. As Junior Mentors, they receive extensive training and, through progressively greater responsibility, learn the skills they need to become future leaders in their community. They serve as positive role-models for their peers while learning accountability, responsibility, and the importance of contribution.

Above all, we inspire young people to face life with courage, gratitude, and commitment to building a better world for themselves and their community.

OUR PARTNERS
City of Dreams works with over 26 community-based organizations and service providers that provide free theatre tickets, youth workshops, meeting space, school uniforms, skills instruction and more.

City of Dreams Partners:

Alice Griffith Opportunity Center
Ashbury Images
Bayview Library
Bayview Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities (BMAGIC)
California Academy of Sciences
Call of the Sea
Camp Choice
First Tee Golf Program
Challenge Learning Center
Community Access Ticket Services (CATS)
Dress for Success
Exploratorium
Mission Cliffs Indoor Rock Climbing
Miwok Livery Stables
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Northstar-at-Tahoe
Oakdale Opportunity Center
Operation Dream
Oregon Creek Camping
PSI Seminars
Save the Bay
San Francisco Conservatory of Dance
The San Francisco Housing Authority
Slide Ranch
Sunnydale Opportunity Center
Yerba Buena Skating Rink
Youth Speaks
San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services