Community service has been an integral component of the DeVos Program. Working in teams of six, students, are required to spend 42 hours a semester working on (at least) one of nine designated community service programs:
Camp Boggy Creek is only available for second year students.
All of the centers where the DeVos students worked gave high praise for their dedication and commitment.
Restore Orlando
Restore Orlando set out in 1992 to raise up a generation of people who are spiritually, physically, and emotionally equipped to achieve their God-given talents to develop permanent and positive growth in their families and communities. The target audience for the DeVos SBM class is "at risk inner city youth." The primary focus is on providing after-school mentoring and promoting sport as an instrument for positive social change.
Restore Orlando, with the support and partnership of churches, businesses, foundations and private citizens, is restoring hope in the lives of Central Florida residents. Restore's primary target area is the Holden Heights area, which covers approximately 180 blocks in unincorporated Orange County.
Restore Orlando's seven Core Programs (Future Hope School of Promise, Children's Learning Center After-school program, The Adult Education Center, Give-Back Volunteerism Program, Community Activities, Kid's Cafe Hot Meal Program and Youth Recreation) reflect the organization's growth and capacity to empower and enable Central Florida's disadvantaged residents. Restore encourages brighter futures - one child, one family, one community at a time.
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Orlando Magic Community Relations (CR) and Youth Foundation (OMYF)
Assist Orlando Magic staff with tracking and distributing donation items, planning and volunteering for CR and OMYF events and volunteering with our newly formed Magic Volunteer Program that we are rolling out in September.
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Read2Succeed
Engages volunteers to provide one-on-one reading assistance and mentoring to second grade students reading below grade level. Volunteers are trained in reading skills and comprehension, as well as mentoring methodology and practices. Throughout the academic year, each volunteer works one-on-one with a student on reading achievement and social and personal development.
The community volunteer approach is designed to reinforce and enhance teacher-classroom instruction. The combined efforts of schools, families and communities provide a positive and encouraging learning environment for students who are struggling with reading. In just three years, the Read2Succeed program grew from five pilot sites to nearly 450 volunteers and 43 schools.
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Scholar Baller
Scholar Baller seeks to bridge the gap between the educational, athletic, and entertainment communities in America. By eliminating the cultural disconnects between these three entities, student-athletes will gain a more holistic understanding for how education, sport and entertainment can become one healthy lifestyle. This will in turn help student-athletes create a positive self-image and compete with passion and integrity in all aspects of their life.
On Saturdays, the volunteers for this service organization teach the Scholar Baller curriculum to students from the YMCA Black Achievers program. The students in the Black Achievers program consist of 9th-12th grade males and females from various high schools in the Orlando area. The six main principles in the Scholar Baller curriculum include:
- Lessons on self identity and social identity;
- The competitive spirit;
- Scholar Baller paradigm/standard;
- Vision, purpose, mission, and goals;
- Decision-making system;
- Vision, industry, self-respect, perseverance, success and humility.
In addition to teaching the Scholar Baller curriculum, the volunteers in this organization also assist with the YMCA Black Achiever Junior-Senior sessions. During these sessions, the volunteers serve as mentors to high school junior and seniors and assist them with various components of the college application process and ultimately help them prepare for post-secondary education.
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Camp Boggy Creek
The Mission of Camp Boggy Creek is to enrich the lives of children who have chronic or life threatening illnesses by creating camping experiences that are memorable, exciting, fun, empowering, physically safe and medically sound.
This is our first year partner. Below are the descriptions of the two programs that DeVos students will be involved with.
- Activity Pals
- Activity areas during family weekends include: Boating and Fishing, Pool, Woodshop, Arts and Crafts, and Archery. Each activity pal is part of a team that is responsible for setting up, operating and cleaning their assigned activity area. In addition, each activity pal is expected to join the family he/she is assigned to for meals, evening programs, and assisting the family pal with the children when the parents are in parent-only groups.
- Family Pals
- Family Pals lend a helping hand to our camper families. Each family is paired up with a family pal who acts as a host for the weekend. Depending on the family's needs, family pal responsibilities can include: greeting families upon arrival, touring them around camp, joining family members in camp activities, supervising the children when the parents are in parent-only activities, helping the family with any needs that arise, and generally helping them to have the best experience possible.
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