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.

Thank you for ALL of your help Firewall Family! Thanks to many generous donors, we were able to reach our end-of-year goals. We can’t thank you enough for believing in our mission to transform students into servant leaders. What we receive from YOU allows us to consistently support our students, through daily tutoring and mentoring. We are starting off 2021 strong because of your generosity!

We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our partners like the Children’s Services Council of Broward County, Volunteer Florida, United Way of Broward County and other individuals that have allowed us to spread holiday cheer with presents for all of our students.

We have also been able to produce a new video series, Firewall Explores, which has made our students excited to attend virtual sessions and stay interested in learning. Click below to see our Firewall Explores highlights from 2020!

Firewall Explores has become a big hit with all of our students. Every other Monday they log on ready to find out where Woodny and Diego have been. We have gone through some different topics like Civil Engineering and now Marine Life and their habitat.

Through a partnership with South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, we were able to use their facility and interview one their Aquarium Director, Rebecca. She helped the students learn about ways to keep their oceans and the fish in them safe. Also, Woodny and Diego were able to teach our students how the Nitrogen Cycle works. Videos like these help Firewall break down educational topics into bite sized interactive videos.

Click down below to see our latest video and check out the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach!

This month we went to our staff and asked them to finish one sentence: “I love Firewall Centers because…” Asking this question brought out a lot of amazing responses. Staff members that have been with us for years got to revisit the reason they first joined Firewall. On the other hand, new mentors and staff are mentioning that even while we are still virtual, they love connecting with their students. Alex, one of our Success Coaches for Bair Middle School, who has worked with us for 6 years, said. “I love Firewall because I get to build relationships with my students.” While, Shawn, our new Elementary Program Director, says, “I love Firewall because we have college students pouring into our students who need love and support, and they’re getting it.”

The closer we get to the end of 2020, the more we want to look back at the good times of our year. If you have a response to why you love Firewall, share it on social media and tag @firewallcenters! We’d love to see how many members we have in our Firewall Family. Of course, if you want to give more than a response and support us financially, you can go to firewallcenters.org/donate