Digital Citizens Mentorship

We are very happy with the progress made this year with YouMeWe NPO.

Communications Development Programs

We offer online language software programs, as well as 1:1 language tutoring at interested children's homes. Providing kids with opportunities to expand their language skills and/or help teach other kids living in other countries is an exciting way for them to open up their perspective, learn about other cultures, and feel connected to something bigger in the world. There are several projects (either in an online format or in-person) that we can offer children's homes. Additionally, we have an annual summer arts program (Designing Artists Academy) that offers sessions ranging from music, dance and acting to animation, illustration, photography and crafts. These sessions allow kids to freely explore different art forms, encouraging new ways to communicate emotions and perspectives.

Following the Global Giving campaign, we have been able to set up a computer lab in Boracay, Philippines and connected the children of Matsubaen in Tokyo usingNightZooKeeper. Nightzookeeper is a game based way for children to learn writing skills in English. Each week, we send assignments and the children are able to write essays or take quizzes and making drawings of their animals which enter the Night Zoo.

Once the teacher reviews the entries and makes corrections or publishes, it goes to a class blog which the children are able to see each other's writings. While the YouMeWe School is planning to roll out to all ten homes in Japan, continue in Philippines, Indonesia, Greece with the refugee children and possibly Uganda.

We feel this is very important for the children of the homes in Japan to make connections with other children globally so they can prepare for possibly teaching Japanese language skills online. We have appointed one of the children in Japan as a Tech Lead for the program.

The common challenge we find among the children, across the age groups and locations is Cyber-bullying and we are going to address this with Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign between the different countries which can be involved.

Digital Citizenship

One of our goals is to ensure kids are well versed in technology, enabling them to safely and responsibly communicate and collaborate across school, future work environments, and everyday life. We offer children a variety of software training and mentoring to prepare them for secondary school or to increase their chances of securing a job at the age of 18.

The Code Club was kicked off in Tokyo lead by one of the children as a Tech Lead. He is currently leading the computer club at school and we are looking at having our children involved but also making this a community involved project which also can include their friends at school, invite the elderly in the community and we can also help the children teach the younger generation basic coding skills.

The curriculum over several months can also be cross-border involving the other locations in South East Asia.

We also visited Apple Ginza for a Field Trip where the kids learned to make music and add it to their own movies.

Career Assessment / Mentoring

In September we launched the Mentor/Mentee program at Colt's Tokyo office where the members have signed up to mentor the children in the program.

When children turn 15, we offer career assessment testing so they can recognize their aptitude for certain subject matters, as well as potentially developing interests. Test results highlight types of courses they might study in university or technical school, as well as a ranked list of jobs associated with their specific results. We analyze the results and provide guidance on how best to move forward. Would they be interested in an internship opportunity? Do they need counseling on university or technical school options? Or maybe they would like tutoring support in a particular area. The test results set a conversation in motion to help guide children on their future possibilities and the correlating steps that follow these options. Providing kids with several years of preparation and training before they start the job search or university equips them with so much more confidence and experience.

COLT “Connectiving Matter” hosted a 24 hour Spinathon as a kick off to the Fund-Raising Bike Ride which will lead to more donations for YouMeWe in our CSR partnership.

Some of the children were able to meet Dean Rogers, CEO of Rosetta Stone as part of their Career mentoring events.

Links:

• Colt Bike Ride