Author: Diego Rodriguez-Seda

In April, Firewall Centers and its students had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a countywide movement. “The Broward AWARE! Protecting OUR Children campaign, powered by the Children’s Services Council (CSC), is an awareness campaign that uses the full spectrum of media to ensure that Broward County families, educators, media, law enforcement and all stakeholders use and share resources that make it possible for children to safely realize their full potential, hopes and dreams.”

On Saturday, April 9th, Firewall bussed over 100 students to Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park in Fort Lauderdale to join the CSC and other local organizations in spreading awareness about the hardships that youth face in their communities. Our Coconut Creek students prepared and presented facts about homelessness in Broward and how it affects children. Our Lauderhill 6-12 students performed artistic expressions of dance, rap, and song to illustrate that with awareness, comes action.

Our students were also able to hear presentations from prominent community leaders on the topics of prevention for human trafficking, child endangerment, and child abuse. These events expand our students’ worldviews as they realize that Firewall is not alone in its mission to make a difference in their community. In fact, there are countless people, many of whom they have never met, that care for their wellbeing too.

Firewall students that attend our program housed in Davie’s Orange Park Community Center were ecstatic to return from their Spring Break because they were treated to an Easter Party! This celebration highlighted not just all their hard work throughout the year, but gave them some much-needed rest before upcoming final exams. Our middle and high school students enjoyed trivia games, egg hunts, and food and beverages when they walked into the Center on that Tuesday afternoon following the break. Each grade competed against one another to win Easter gift baskets and prizes to enjoy themselves or share with their friends.

Events like this Easter party allow Firewall to walk even closer through life with students and thus strengthens the organization’s overall impact. Meaningful experiences and celebrations are remembered by students forever as they grow up and learn to appreciate themselves and others along the way.

In October, we had the great opportunity to host two representatives from Broward College at our Lauderhill 6-12 and Coconut Creek High School Centers. They led a presentation on the importance of continued education after high school. As they discussed aspects of financial aid and all the support they can get from the institution, more and more of our students started verbalizing their interest.

Broward College highlighted the ways that students and their families can save money by starting their under-graduate education with them first before transferring to another university. It was noticeable how many of our students were affected by this eye-opening presentation! Even after the visit was over, the students continued to speak of ways they would use their degree or certificate. We can’t wait to see our students get accepted into institutions like Broward College and better their lives through continued education.

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Broward College is a public college in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. It was established in 1959 as part of a move to broaden Florida’s two-year colleges.

Did you know that more than 10 of our former Firewall students have become AmerCorps mentors? Many of these students start off by working in our internship program. The internship allows students that attend our High School sites to gain volunteer hours as they tutor and mentor fellow Firewall students. We currently have 4 mentors, like Sebastian R. (pictured below), that have participated in the Firewall program since 6th grade. These now AmeriCorps members experienced firsthand the impact of being mentored at Firewall and knew that was the example they wanted to follow. Servant Leadership was ingrained in them from the first day they joined Firewall as students, and now they can connect with our students even more by being a mentor to them.

We have had 5+ of our AmeriCorps Members go on to become full-time staff! In our current economy where jobs need to be filled everywhere, we have found a way to retain the hearts and minds of our AmeriCorps Members. At Firewall, they are able to live out our vision to “transform students into servant leaders.” They joined our team full-time to continue making a difference in students’ lives across Broward County.

This would not have been possible without the support of AmeriCorps and all of its connected entities. We truly exist “To improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.”

Firewall Staff and AmeriCorps members were inspired at our September 16th Training. We had to split our training into two groups due to our recent growth, as we added new Center locations and Mentors to the team. The day began with a Citizenship Training where Mentors learned about the importance of committing to personal responsibility for the welfare of ourselves, our families, and our communities. “Every right has its responsibilities. Like the right itself, these responsibilities stem from no man-made law, but from the very nature of man and society.” (Senator Lewis Schwellenbach). Our staff and members split up into small groups as they participated in an activity where they had to shorten the bill of rights from ten rights to five. The activity brought members together as they learned to use both their similarities and differences to accomplish the greater goal.

Mentors then listened to one of our own Success Coaches discuss Behavior Tools that can help them daily as they serve their students. Utilizing his two degrees in Social Work and Psychology, Success Coach Ryan from our Bair Middle School site taught members how to increase appropriate behavior through clear expectations and repetition. Mentors also learned how to decrease inappropriate behavior through redirection and corrective feedback.

The highlight of the afternoon was undoubtedly the visit from Corey Simon, CEO of Volunteer Florida. He shared about his life and how “[He] never thought [he’d] be standing here doing what [he does]. But [he] just started by serving.” Through anecdotes of his program experience and the ways he served his community, he inspired our mentors to keep being a guide for our students. He reminded members that “Sometimes [the kids] just want to know that there’s someone there to listen, someone they can trust.”

We want to give a big thank you to Volunteer Florida and AmeriCorps for inspiring us to inspire our students and for their continual support.