Bags for a Boost
Through this social support program, The MRP Project’s staff fill bags called bags for a boost for nominated individuals with donated fun and comfort-type items (ten dollars or less) to women and men who are suffering from an illness or loss. The loss could be the death of a loved one or loss of a marriage or job.
Bags for a Boost was developed based on the underlying belief that individuals facing hardships will benefit from social support. Often, people facing a hardships feel isolated and alone. The program’s goal is to provide recipients with an emotional boost. The bags show these individuals that people in their communities are thinking of them, which will provide hope through social support. The program’s vision is that individuals within the community will have the social support they need to embrace positive growth in response to their hardship.
The MRP Project partners with individual donors and companies to collect donated fun and comfort-type items that cost ten dollars or less. Ten to fifteen donated items are put together in a signature bag. The bag also includes an uplifting letter about The MRP Project and states who nominated the recipient. Some bags (based on availability) include hand-written notes of encouragement, kindness, empathy, and strength written by community members.
Donors and/community members nominate women and men facing hardships for bags for a boost and The MRP Project volunteers fill and deliver the bags.
This program also offers a way for community members who want to help individuals facing hardships, but don’t know how. When a tragedy strikes, most people feel helpless. Nominating someone for a bag will offer community members a way to help mitigate feelings of helplessness.
Raising Resilient Kids
In this social support program, The MRP Project offers an educational series called Raising Resilient Kids to parents who are parenting children suffering from an illness, loss, divorce, or any other significant type of hardship or disappointment.
The program’s goal is to provide parents with tools to help develop and/or enhance resilience in their children. In this facilitated workshop, parents can support each other, share lessons-learned, discuss experiences, and learn from one another.
The series will instill the idea that hardships play an essential role in children’s development. The series will discourage parents from trying to “fix problems.” Instead, the curriculum will focus on teaching children to understand how they’re feeling and how to help them cope with similar feelings in the future.
The curriculum will push parents to explore resilience, which is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity. The program will show what behaviors, thoughts, and actions can be used to build resilience in their children.
In this six-week series, we’ll explore the following topics:
- The definition of resilience
- Resilience factors and strategies
- Ways to build resilience
- Learning from the past
- Staying flexible
- Places to look for help
Each class session will focus on one of the above topics and will also allow for facilitated problem-solving and group discussions.
STEAMPals
The MRP Project offers a mentoring program called STEAMPals that introduces middle school students to careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) at a pivotal point in their academic career. In middle school, students start thinking about specific classes in high school they must take if they want to focus on STEAM. The program will not only provide the students with an introduction to STEAM careers, but will match them with a competent and caring adult mentor currently working in the STEAM field.
The program’s goal is to provide middle school students in the Greater Hopkinton, MA area with hope that they can get a job in the STEAM field if they so desire. By developing life skills, self-confidence, and motivation to achieve their full potential, this program will help students in a positive way while keeping STEAM at the forefront in their lives.
In 2018, up to 2.4 million STEM jobs went unfilled because there were not enough qualified candidates to fill the jobs. Experts believe students are not pursuing STEM-related jobs because the topic is not being presented early enough (or often enough). STEAMPals will help bring attention to jobs in STEAM fields. By partnering with an after-school enrichment program and/or local school districts, The MRP Project will fill this need in the community.
How STEAMPals Works
Mentors and students will meet face-to-face up to three times during this 12-week program. The remaining weeks they will email each other.
- In the first class, an MRP Project staff member will introduce the STEAMPals program to the students and help them understand how they can benefit from having a STEAM mentor.
- The second class will be a meet-and-greet event where each student meets and get to know their mentor.
- During the third class, students will send their first email to their mentor. An MRP Project staff member will work with the students to help them write emails about the assignments they are working on in their science, technology, engineering, art, or math classes at school.
In their responses, the mentors will act as coaches by asking open-ended questions and encourage students to edit and improve their work. They will also discuss real-life examples of STEAM work they’re involved in at their jobs.
The students and mentors will each send one email per week. Mentors will provide students with individualized and focused support with school assignments during the duration of the program.
STEAMPals will bring knowledge from the community to local middle school students and provide the opportunity for individuals from local companies, organizations, and colleges to volunteer together.