February 2012

What has 20 lanes, 200 pins and is fun for the entire family?  Its Hopeworks 2nd Annual Roll for Hope!  Come out and enjoy 3 hours of unlimited bowling, a 2 hour buffet, and the opportunity to bid on wonderful auction items. All to help Hopeworks to continue empowering Camden’s youth through technology training for over 10 years.

When?
Date: Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Where? Pinsetter Bar & Bowl
7111 Maple Avenue,
Pennsauken, NJ 08109
www.pinsetterbowl.com

Cost
$35 per person (includes bowling, shoes, 2 hour buffet)

Register Now!
http://www.hopeworks.org/roll-for-hope/

Its official!  We can now start our own Hopeworks College Baseball team!  That’s right we currently have 9 Hopeworks trainees in college:  Jon, DJ, Shawn, Lewis, Dante, Alfredo, Krystle, Keenan and Joe, who we will feature today.  Joe has completed the Hopeworks training and earned an internship in our web site development business. He will be a part of the pre-nursing program at Camden County in order to prepare to transfer to a four year nursing program. Hopeworks helped Joe work out some issues with financial aid and some academic issues from his previous semester. When asked about the upcoming semester, Joe responded: “Returning to school makes me feel nervous and excited. I know I will be successful, but I have small fears that I will struggle at first.” Hopeworks is proud to work with youth like Joe to ensure that they are successful in college. We can engage the struggle and make sure that Joe’s return is strong.  To follow our college team like Hopeworks ‘N Camden on Facebook!  We now have helped 134 Camden youth start college!

This spring we have a number of exciting internships set up for Hopeworks’ Trainees to pursue.  Dante Spain started his internship last November at the Camden County Municipal Utility Authority. Dante has been working with Andy Kricun (both pictured above), the Cheif Engineer Officer, and his staff.  Recently at Dante’s mid-term evaluation Andy praised Dante’s character and commitment.  Kim, a staff member at CCMUA reports that “Always a smile, never a complaint.  Dante is a pleasure to have here at the CCMUA.”  His second half of his internship includes goals of helping to get a video updated for CCMUA, setting up a tour for Hopeworks trainees and staff, and creating a PowerPoint presentation to share at CCMUA.  Congrats to Dante on his success and hard work!   We also congratulate Jonathan Lugo on earning an internship at Cooper Hospital in the Organizational Development and Training Department.  We are also excited to announce that Djvonn Brown started an internship at Slice Communications in Center City Philadelphia at the end of January, working with social media and public relations.  Trainees also be interviewed at Virtua Hospital for positions that will start later in February.  Internships are 10 to 15 weeks long and are another opportunity that a youth can earn here as they work towards their DREAMS.  They provide a solid opportunity to grow in a professional work environment along with continued coaching and support at Hopeworks.  Thanks to all of our internship partners!

Hopeworks is proud to announce that it was awarded a $30,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President’s Grant Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a private philanthropy located in NJ, supporting various initiatives and innovative projects to address health and health care issues.  Their program administrative assistants group was given an opportunity to provide a one-time grant to an organization embarking on a new project or perhaps seeking to expand program ideas on an existing project.  Hopeworks was invited to participate and competed with other organizations from across the country for this award.   The goal of the RWJF was to fund projects that have the potential to positively affect individuals and create an impact in the community.    Hopeworks will be using the funds to continue to build and expand C.R.I.B. programming and to help cover the costs of youth salaries. Thanks to Kia Muldrow, the administrative assistant who invited us to participate and to everyone who reviewed our proposal.  To learn more about RWJF, please visit www.RWJF.org

Impactful.  Life Changing.  Awesome.  Inspiring.  These are the comments that echo throughout the reflections of the youth and staff who participated in our Mexico Service Trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Visiting some of the poorest of the poor in Mexico was an eye-opening experience for everyone, and the trip has provoked many questions in our hearts and minds:    Why does poverty like this exist?  What role do I have in it?  How can we help?  How will I take advantage of all of the options that I have in my life?  How can we keep this connection with youth from Cuernavaca going?  The group visited  projects run by a non-profit named VAMOS!  (www.vamos.org.mx)  The visits included small schools, projects for the elderly and computer labs in remote colonias.  Click here for an article in the Courier Post about our trip!  Click here for coverage on NBC10! Click here for coverage in the Philadelphia Business Journal.   We are planning on returning to Cuernavaca and exploring ways to partner with this inspiring organization.   Thanks to everyone who supported out trip!

It’s that time of year again!  The Hopeworks GIS team is gearing up for the development of the 2012 Camden Street Map.  The team will be hard at work over the next few months developing advertising, updating the map, and adding new features.  Four members of our team will be working with Photoshop, Illustrator, ArcGIS, Salesforce and more to bring this project together. The finished product will be ready for delivery in June, don’t miss out!  This year’s map is sure to be the best one yet, so make sure your business or organization is represented.  To find out how you can advertise, contact Michael Sontag (michael@hopeworks.org).

In a world of Angry Birds on iPads, games are everywhere. Additionally, any time you go to the grocery store you scan a card for customer rewards points. These systems have built in incentives: getting to the next level, earning a coupon or winning the game. To a great deal, our world is being “gamified.” Hopeworks is making the most of a great opportunity to partner with Bunchball, an industry leader in gamification, to help us recognize, incentivize and reward trainee performance. Using Nitro, Bunchball’s new Salesforce.com interface, we have set up a series of challenges for trainees to accomplish relating to attendance and timely completion of goals in training, literacy, formation and our web development internships. By achieving several milestones, trainees will earn points that they will use to earn rewards at various levels, such as as bus passes, movie tickets or an iTunes gift card. Our small challenges are designed to help the trainees focus on the little things they can do to be successful here. Watch for more updates.

Dale Cline, CEO of Netforensics, met with five Hopeworks college youth to share his experience in the computer security field.  Dale specifically talked about the importance of networking and the practical experience that he looks for when hiring.  Angel Rodriguez (working at Symantec), Jovanni Hernandez (graduating from Drexel with computer science degree) and Sade Coley (graduating with a degree in Information Systems from NJIT) were especially interested in Dale’s field of work and the experiences he had to share regarding the tech industry.

Check out the news!  Two pieces of recognition for Hopeworks Executive Director Father Jeff.  First, he was a finalist to be named 2011 Citizen of the Year by The Philadelphia Inquirer.  And in January he was named JerseyMan of the Month by JerseyMan Magazine.  Click here to read the write up!   Congratulations to FJ and keep up the great work!