About

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Mission
History
Partners
Awards
Contact

Mission

DreamCatchers aims to build a highly effective, low cost afterschool model that improves the education outcomes and health behaviors of low-income youth.

To realize our mission, we engage college students, community partners and families in our efforts, creating an entire community dedicated to the success of the students we serve.

College Students

Our programs are led by an outstanding cohort of college students and recent graduates who serve in capacities ranging from Tutors to Site Directors. Our team of young people is given both the autonomy to design their own curriculum and activities, as well as the tools to excel through in-house training and mentorship sessions led by local experts. By enlisting committed and talented young people in leading our programs, DreamCatchers provides a highly effective set of programs characterized by the energy and passion of our young and capable team.

Community Partners

Our efforts are informed and supported by the knowledge and resources provided by our community partners. Since our founding, we have relied on our partners to help inform the services we provide and the approach we take in providing those services. Through their work with our students and families in other programs, capacities and settings, our partners provide invaluable insights into the concerns and needs of those we serve.

Families

At DreamCatchers we understand the importance of engaging the parents and families of our students. By keeping parents informed of and involved in their students’ progress, we are able to enlist parents in supporting and reinforcing the programming we provide. Most importantly, by regularly communicating with parents, we are able to gain a personal understanding of the students and families we work with to best serve their needs.

History

DreamCatchers was founded by a team with a vision of creating an effective model for improving the education outcomes and health behaviors of low-income adolescents.

Prior to our founding, Kate Young recognized the Palo Alto community’s need for afterschool academic support accessible to low-income families, through her work with families living in subsidized housing in Palo Alto, California. To address this need, Kate teamed together with Stanford student Sarah Mummah , who founded DreamCatchers in 2008. Since our founding, DreamCatchers has served as Palo Alto’s only long-term, one-on-one tutoring program available to low-income families at no charge.

During our founding, we recognized the high potential of passionate and dedicated college students and built a team of Stanford student volunteers to lead the organization’s day-to-day operations. This team of talented and capable individuals has proved integral to DreamCatchers’ sustainability and effectiveness. To create a program tailored to the specific needs of our students and families, we also developed a network of local partnerships with the Palo Alto Family YMCA, Palo Alto Adult School, Palo Alto Unified School District, and Palo Alto Housing Corporation. This network of partners has provided invaluable local support and informed the development of our locally tailored program.

In the short time since our founding, DreamCatchers has been recognized and honored with numerous awards for our work in the community. As DreamCatchers has grown, we’ve recognized the power of focusing not only on strengthening student academics but also on cultivating healthy behaviors, to reinforce student achievement gains in the classroom. As a result, in 2011 we’re introducing a new healthy eating program to enable us to address both the education and health of our students through a mutually reinforcing approach. During these initial years, we’ve also recognized the potential for our program to serve as an effective model for an education and health intervention in other communities, and we are currently developing plans for replicating our program in more communities to support more students and families.

Partners

Our network of partners in the Palo Alto community provides us with invaluable resources and support and has enabled the development of a program tailored to the specific needs of our students and their families.

YMCA

With the help of the Palo Alto Family YMCA and YMCA of Silicon Valley, DreamCatchers expanded its program in 2010 to a second site at the Ventura Teen Center, enabling us to serve more students in need across the Palo Alto community.

The Palo Alto Family YMCA is committed to strengthening and enriching the development of youth, adults, families and communities. YMCA of Silicon Valley is a volunteer-led public charity that works collaboratively with community partners to improve the lives of children, adults, families, and the entire community. Its mission is to strengthen and enrich the development of individuals and families through quality programs and services that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.

Palo Alto Unified School District

DreamCatchers receives student referrals directly from Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and its three middle schools. Working directly with PAUSD teachers, school counselors and administrators, DreamCatchers is able to provide more specialized and targeted help to the students it serves.

PAUSD serves approximately 10,000 students who live in most, but not all, of the City of Palo Alto, certain areas of Los Altos Hills, and Portola Valley, as well as the Stanford University campus. The District consists of twelve elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools. In addition, the District currently operates a pre-school, Young Fives program, a self-supporting Adult School, the Hospital School at Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, and Summer School.

Palo Alto Adult School

DreamCatchers first launched its program at the Palo Alto Adult School and continues to operate one of its two program sites at this location.

Palo Alto Adult School was established by the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) in 1921. The adult school offers a robust program and annually serves a student population of approximately 8000 students. The school is committed to excellence by providing a broad range of affordable, high quality education programs. Its goal is to meet the diverse lifelong learning needs of its community.

The adult school provides classes for English learners, parents, job seekers, travelers, hobbyists, and others who want to expand their skills. Whether you want to learn to cook, try your hand at something new or enhance your skills, Palo Alto Adult School can meet your lifelong learning needs.

Palo Alto Housing Corporation

Palo Alto Housing Corporation (PAHC) first recognized the need for no-charge tutoring for underserved students in Palo Alto, many of whom live in subsidized housing provided by PAHC. DreamCatchers collaborates with PAHC to ensure that tutoring support is reaching families who are most in need.

Palo Alto Housing Corporation’s mission is to foster, develop, acquire, and manage low- and moderate- income housing in Palo Alto and the San Francisco Bay Area. Although the City of Palo Alto is a rich community in many ways, the high cost of housing creates a barrier to people of limited income. Many who currently work or have grown up in this community cannot afford to live here. This situation results in the need for low- and moderate-income households to seek housing elsewhere or to pay an unreasonable proportion of their incomes for housing. Thus, there is a great need for more affordable rental and ownership housing units so that overpayment is not such a burden. The availability of affordable housing is central to maintaining community character and diversity. Palo Alto’s community leaders recognized that the issue of affordable housing deserved attention. To address this concern, the City Council assisted in establishing the Palo Alto Housing Corporation in 1970 as a private non-profit agency.

City of Palo Alto’s Family Resources

Family Resources collaborated to help found DreamCatchers.

Family Resources engages the community to build on existing strengths and services to promote the well-being of its families and their children. Family Resources is a community-based program conceived in response to changing social conditions that left families feeling isolated and with increasingly complex needs. Family Resources works to raise the level of resource awareness in the community, a first prerequisite to service utilization, as well as building community relationships across all community constituents. In this way, accessibility and utilization will be made easier and more comfortable, improving and equalizing the opportunities for all families to utilize the wealth of services and resources available to them. In the process of accomplishing this goal, those involved will be working together, exercising the spirit of community, and making a conscious effort to infuse that spirit while spreading resource information into the larger community.

Awards

In the short time since our founding, DreamCatchers has already received numerous awards and honors.

Stanford Community Partnership Award January 2012

The Stanford Community Partnership Awards are given out to deserving partnership groups that exist between Stanford and its neighboring communities. DreamCatchers was awarded in 2012 for its ability to engage a large local network that comes together to create an effective after-school model.

U.S. Congress Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition June 2011

DreamCatchers was recognized at the Annual Palo Alto PTA luncheon with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the United States Congress, for outstanding and invaluable community service.

California State Honorary Service Award June 2011

DreamCatchers was also recognized at the Annual Palo Alto PTA luncheon with an Honorary Service Award for “outstanding service to children and youth”. The Palo Alto Family YMCA, one of our partnership organizations, was also recognized at the luncheon with a Continuing Service Award.

Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund March 2010

The Palo Alto Weekly and Silicon Valley Community Foundation honored DreamCatchers as a Holiday Fund Grant Recipient, to support our work serving families and children in the Palo Alto area.

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City of Palo Alto Community Star Award June 2009

Mayor Peter Drekmeier and the Palo Alto City Council honored DreamCatchers alongside the Palo Alto Red Cross at the Palo Alto City Council meeting on June 1, 2009. DreamCatchers was recognized with a Proclamation and Community Star Award for “outstanding public volunteer service” and for our significant contribution to the strength and wellbeing of the Palo Alto community.

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Stanford University Bingham Fund for Student Innovation May 2009

Our Founder Sarah Mummah was awarded the Bingham Fund to launch new programming providing high quality training, mentorship and support to our DreamCatchers tutors and volunteers.