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Issue #35 | January 2021

Hello Changemakers - from all of us here at United Way Youth Venture/Changemaking and the Portrait of a Graduate team. Happy New Year! There is a lot to share this month as several exciting events are upcoming that you won't want to miss. Including: Healthy Minds, Well-Being for Well-Doing, Virtual Youth Conference Call for artists! Young artists to represent their vision of what school should be like in order for ALL students to thrive in college, career and our community. Changemaker Family Session: Mindful Cooking Changemaker Camps We hope your new year is off to a great start! We look forward to 'seeing' you at an information session or event soon! As always, we appreciate you and thank you for your continued support! And please click the icons just below to follow us on social media! Thank you! ~the United Way Youth Venture Team!

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Healthy Minds: Well-Being for Well-Doing is a North Central MA-wide effort to bring health and real-world skill building opportunity to our students! On Wednesday, April 14—that’s three days before April vacation!—we are hosting a free virtual field trip for students in grades 2 through 12. The event is scheduled conveniently on what is an asynchronous learning day for most schools, from 10-2 after morning meetings have concluded and before the school day wraps up. Our hope is that this event will be a nice compliment to a school week where student and teacher energy is flagging before vacation begins. Registration for this event will open on March 15, but in the meantime, feel free to contact us with questions and ideas. Click the graphic above to access the flyer filled with additional information, including facilitator and volunteer opportunities! You can learn even more at an information session to provide an overview of the event to educators. Click here to register to join the Tues, Feb. 2 info session 2-3 PM.

Starting a conversation is at the beginning of every Changemaker's journey. So during this time of togetherness, let's start a conversation with our family members. Every couple of days on our social media profile pages we are posting the Connection Question of the Day! We hope that you'll take this opportunity to enjoy the questions and dialog with your families.

Calling Student Artists & Classroom Project Inspiration! Young and aspiring art students of all ages are invited to submit original pieces of artwork (any kinds as long as it can be photographed or digitized) representing their vision of what school should be like in order for ALL students to thrive in college, career, and our community. Accepted pieces will be displayed on the virtual community gallery of the Fitchburg Art Museum from March 10 to April 12 as part of a Portrait of a Graduate North Central Mass show! Awards will be designated for outstanding works. What could be cooler than students having their works displayed in an art museum? Well, believe it or not, this art show is part of a body of qualitative research of what young people in North Central MA want from their school experience. We are partnered with Inspire to Change, a St. Paul-based organization specializing in coaching, facilitation, and research, with a particularly unique ability to extract meaningful knowledge from arts-based methods. This art show is a vehicle to help us understand what students of all ages envision for their ideal learning experience. Click here for full details. Click here for the Google Doc version of the Artist Statement worksheet to help students think through their entry and learn about Exhibit guidelines or thumbnail below for PDF. TEACHERS: Click this link for lesson plan ideas! Special thanks to Leominster High Art Teacher, Shelly Saben for helping with this! All submissions are due in digitized form by February 15.

MARCH 4 6-7 PM Changemaker Family Session: Mindful Cooking Gather your loved ones for a fun evening preparing a simple, but delicious and healthy meal. Bonus! Learn mindfulness techniques along the way with youth mental health expert, Kyrah Altman, co-founder of LEAD, Inc. Register here

What are Changemaker Camps? Short-term, intensive bursts of focused learning and reflection on a target challenge area. Combine collective passion and wisdom to redesign your own mindsets, relationships, curriculum, and/or systems. Who are Changemaker Camps for? Any employee of a partnering Changemaker school or district may participate for free. All previous Changemakers regardless of current affiliation are also welcome to join. Professional development credits will be awarded upon completion of any multi-part Changemaker Camp (4.5 to 6 CEUs). Click the overview flyer above to download and share.

Website sneak-peek! While it's not complete yet and there are still brand new (yet empty) pages - - we are still super excited about it! We especially love that this will quickly become the hub for our three main initiatives, Youth Venture, Changemaking educator professional development, and the Portrait of a Graduate grant project. This site will be your one-stop-shop for getting information, learning about and registering for our events, discovering how to become involved and staying updated on all that is happening. If you want to be one of the first to see it (unfinished but getting there...) - click at your own risk! uwyv.mwcc.edu

We are almost a full month into the new year - how are you doing with your resolutions? Still going strong Select Fizzled out already Select Didn't make any resolutions Select

Interested in writing for the official UWYV blog? Our audience wants to hear from YOU! The Venturer Voice blog seeks students, Champions, Allies and community contributors to write pieces for our official blog! Learn about how to get involved here.

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