Thank you The Decision Co. for the donation!
A massive thank you to ‘ The Decision Co. ‘ for donating to our “Cityzens Giving for Recovery Yokohama" matching project!
“ The Decision Co.” is a survey research and data science business that goes beyond numbers to provide intelligence for action. We believe that pretty charts and graphs won’t move the needle of your organization. Only a team like The Decision Co. will transform what you know about and how you interact with your audiences to drive better outcomes “
Thank you Platinum Training Consultants for the donation!
A massive thank you to ‘ Platinum Training Consultants for the contribution ‘ for donating to our “Cityzens Giving for Recovery Yokohama" matching project!
The Global Human Resources Development Program provided by Platinum Training Consultants is a human resources development solution that provides training tailored to the goals of the company and the goals of each and every employee. To effectively improve the performance of organizations and individuals, we offer tailor-made programs tailored to the targets of companies and employees. We always keep in mind that investing in human resources can bring high returns to companies and employees
CommonSense Media Balance
Our curriculum is based on the Digital Citizenship content of CommonSense Media which we translate and teach the principle in the first half of the class and then have paired it with a writing lesson on NightZookeeper which is how we re-emphasize the concept for the full lesson. Some of the YouMeWe Ambassadors come back from university to help out with the younger kids.
This weeks Digital Citizens lesson at St.Francis. New volunteers.
One of the graduates came to visit and showed us the movies she has been making using her iPhone. We are introducing her to a film director and transferring the video equipment to this home for her to utilize.
Another youth is in college studying fashion and coming to help us in the evenings on Mondays.
We have volunteer teachers from the US who are high school students teaching other high school students on the weekend.
We also work with Ruth Gilmore Ingulsrud of JOEE who is teaching the very little kids English with puppets online.
We rarely see all of the kids of the home at one time. Last week we peaked into the pod with the kids who are 2 years old to 5. So much energy and waiting to grown up and join us.
Little by Little Campaign
The campaign kicks off now.
In commemoration of Tohoku’s revival since the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 3/11, YouMeWe is fundraising for COVID-19 aid packs to send to care homes in the Tohoku area. These kits will include essentials such as disposable/reusable masks and bottles of hand sanitizer. Each donation will be match-funded with GlobalGiving’s 2021 March Little by Little Matching Campaign runs from Monday, March 8, at 00:00:00 ET to Friday, March 12, at 23:59:59 ET.https://www.globalgiving.org/march-2021-little-by-little....
Even the smallest donations can have a significant impact on the lives of children and staff at care homes. YouMeWe’s campaign in commemoration of the Tohoku anniversary is your chance to make a large impact by helping to protect homes from COVID-19.
Donate now on Global Giving for the KIWL 2021 ride which will end in Fukushima Aiikuen children’s home this year. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/kiwl-2021-bike-ride/
Thank you en world for the donation!
A massive thank you to en world for the contribution to our “Cityzens Giving for Recovery Yokohama" matching project!
One thing has remained constant in en world’s journey from recruiting services start-up in 1999 to one of Japan’s leading talent acquisition and management firms today.
The en world way is to partner long-term with clients and job-seekers to support in the most comprehensive way possible the process of identifying, attracting, retaining, and developing global talent for global organizations in Japan.
Thank you Intralink for the donation!
A massive thank you to Intralink for the contribution to our “Cityzens Giving for Recovery Yokohama" matching project!
Intralink is an international business development and innovation consultancy with a deep specialism in East Asia. They enable: western companies to expand in Asia, Asian corporates to collaborate with global innovators, government organizations to grow their regions' exports and attract foreign investment.
New Intern-Summer
Hello, my name is Summer! I live in the US, and I began this internship after completing all of my college courses. I joined YouMeWe in December, hoping to study more in regards to such things as community outreach, communication, general marketing, and Japanese culture. In my spare time, I enjoy the gym, martial arts, and webcomics. I look forward to continuing studies here at YouMeWe, where I can also work to improve the lives of others.
Stay safe!
New Intern- Rob
Rob is originally from New York and currently is a junior at Boston College, double-majoring in Biology and Political Science. His previous experience in non-profit work and domestic violence courts has driven him to pursue a career in public service, and he is currently on the track to go to law school. In his free time, Rob enjoys the outdoors and exploring the Boston-area. He is excited to work on the YouMeWe team and contribute to the exemplary and inspiring work being done!
New Intern-Maddy
Hello! 初めまして！My name is Maddy and I will be an intern with YouMeWe until March. I grew up with both Japanese and Western cultures, and my career vision is to work in the field of communication and media to build stronger ties between Japan and the Western world. I enjoy going for walks, travelling and meeting people from all walks of life.
New Intern Sayaka
Sayaka Chen
YouMeWeNPO Intern 2021
Sayaka is a final year Psychology and Criminology student from New Zealand, currently studying at the University of Auckland. Passionate about the areas of crime and public policy, she came to YouMeWeNPO to work on the Social Impact Bond Project. Originally raised in the city, Sayaka has since fallen in love with and moved to the countryside where she spends her time tending to seasonal vegetables growing in her garden. The excess cabbage grown out of enthusiasm is often hand-fed to lucky cows in the neighbouring paddock! After her internship, Sayaka plans to finish her senior year in University and then hopefully attain a position at an NGO.
YouMeWeNPO Internship Project: Organizations concerned with various Japanese-English projects.
New Intern-Grace
We currently have 5 university interns working with us remotely.
Grace Jeong joined YouMeWe this spring and is a junior at Boston College, majoring in philosophy and minoring in women’s and gender studies. During her free time she enjoys reading, drawing, and going out for walks. Her favorite food is sweet red bean paste.
Staff Seminar collaboration with TELL. Session 2
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. Working together, we can help create neighborhoods, communities, and a world in which every child can thrive.
Sonoda sensei explains this concept and how we can redefine the role as a children’s home staff ~ How the childhood adverse experiences affect on people and society.
IOT training from YouMeWe NPO
Ambassadors from YouMeWe are going out to the homes we support and teaching the staff how to embrace IOT devices. We purchased ALEXA for most of the homes offices and each month will introduce them to a new facet of IOT.
2021 Calendars rolled out from the kids session with Tia last month
Digital Citizens in the 21st century do not have a lot of tangible things. One of the things they do not have a lot of are photos of themselves printed out.
We were fortunate to have Tia Haygood join us from TOPTIA Photography https://toptia.com/ to teach the kids about how to use cameras, perspective, and range. We then compiled their photos into 2021 calendars so they can be reminded of the experience all year long.
IchigoJam training at St.Francis with Araki-sensei in Sendai online
Araki-sensei from Sendai also had to adjust his face to face coding classes with kids and made the online teaching entertaining and easy to follow. This class was social distanced by the volunteers, we had to reduce the number of people and will rotate them for different days and events. The class was lead by one of our YouMeWe Ambassadors who graduated from one home and is now working with us to teach others.
The next generation...
Getting taller everyday, this is the creation of one of our Digital Citizens at Matsubaen. He is 15 and decided to make his own computer. He asked for new chairs for the computer lab and after we ordered, he assembled.
He is also part of the CodeClub/Dojo run by our new 19 year old staff member who graduated from the Matsubaen home and built his own computer when he was 15.
A Series of Staff workshops
In collaboration with TELL, we will be hosting online Staff Seminars for the staff working in the children's homes today. This will run for the first quarter.
******
A Series of workshop
for the children’s home staff and directors: January through March 2021 Presented by TELL
1. For staff:
Goals
● Provide opportunities for gaining knowledge on how to take care of your own mental
health
● Provide opportunities for learning how to care the traumatized children more
effectively
Objective
- Obtaining stress management skills
- Obtaining anger management skills
- Learning signs to be able to identify burning-out and compassionate fatigue
- Learning effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Learning how to identify the children’s’ needs from presenting behaviors
- Taking time to consider work-life balance
2. For directors/managers (encho)
In order to cover and address the complex needs of the children's home directors, this workshop will be formulated based on a questionnaire to directors.
Goals
● Provide opportunities for gaining knowledge on how to identify at-risk staff ●
Objective
- Learning how to communicate at-risk staff and connect to services -
3. Workshop delivery
a. Through on-line live presentations and Q & A (90 min).
b. Through on-line recorded video presentations (70 min.)
4. Workshop schedule (tentative schedule)
Workshop
Theme
Live presentation
Recording access
1
Stress and Anger management for Children’s house staff
1/15/2021
1/20/2021~ 3/25/2021
2
Re-define your role as a children’s home staff ~ How the childhood adverse experiences affect on people and society
1/22/2021
1/27/2021~ 3/25/2021
3
How to read children’s needs~ learning from the Circle of Security metaphor
2/5/2021
2/10/2021~ 3/25/2021
4
Directors/managers training
How to identify the staff’s mental health
2/19/2021
2/24/2021~ 3/25/2021
difficulties, and how to create mental health-friendly workplace and agency culture to prevent turn over
5
How to balance work and private life starting from the new fiscal year
3/5/2021
3/10/2021~ 3/25/2021
6 Q & A sessions 3/26/2021 N/A
5. Introduction of the presenter, Kyoko Sonoda, MA LPCC
Kyoko obtained her master's degree in counseling psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2004. She is the Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health counselor of the State of New Mexico, U. S. A., and works at the TELL Counseling Center since 2017. She has completed EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) training and various parenting methods, such as “Circle of Security”, “Theraplay”, “Nurturing Parenting”, “Child-Parent Relationship Therapy”, “Cooperative Parenting for Divorced Parents”, and “Positive Discipline”. She regards the prevention of child abuse as her life work and she is thrilled to provide this series of workshops.
Thank you COLT
We wanted to share with you the photos from Matsubaen and their Christmas thanks to the generous donation from COLT.
H-kun graduated in 2020 but did not have a suit so we bought him a suit, 5 shirts and several neckties. The home requested several SWITCH game consoles and booklets on how to use them as well as 6 gaming desk chairs.
Thank you again for your continued support and helping make Matsubaen's Christmas that much more special.
How do you want your life to end up?
photo by Derek A
This week we saw the “Coming of Age” ceremony celebrated in Japan as the young adults who turned 20 years old joined the majority. Many young ladies dressed in the traditional kimonos while young men wore suits.
One of the things we realized from the homes that we support is that the children who turn 20 do not have kimonos and the staff tend to raise the money to rent them. We would like to appeal to people who are holding on to kimonos and are willing to donate or loan them for this special occasion. We can put you in contact with our respective homes to support.
The other thing we think about as we go into the 3rd year of our 5 year plan is that this year is to be focused on Access; Resources, Connectivity, and Networking.
While the children in the homes did not have much say in way they came into this world or the families into which they were born, they can have a say on how their lives end up. We, at YouMeWe see this as our mission.
Life plans help people think about how they want their lives to end up. By having a plan, at any age, helps everyone even if they go off course for a short while. It is that plan that you can come back to. At YouMeWe we are evolving from the analogy of offering ornaments for a Christmas Tree when a child has never seen a decorated tree. Through Life Plans, Life Connection, Money Connection ,Career Assessments and SMART Goal planning, then we can offer the kids the skills sets they will need to focus on in order to be successful in their futures.
This is where the volunteers and donors are most important. Not only providing the funding as we do this but also to act as mentors and coaches to the kids as well as becoming that extended network for the children as grown adults. The children are not the problems, it is their family of origin which is where they come from but their family of destination which holds the answers and where they are headed with our help.
What the children in the homes need more than anything is that human connection. The effort and reminder that their lives matter and are worth investing in.
How do you want your life to end up?
Christmas Wish Lists 2020
仙台天使園 (Sendai): http://amzn.asia/fv3pvdU
大洋学園 (Taiyo Gakueun): http://amzn.asia/0Jeb5Xs
清瀬子供の家 (Kiyose): http://amzn.asia/ciYNeUH
駒方寮 (Komogata Ryo): http://amzn.asia/egBHgMI
若松寮 (Nagoya Wakamatsu Ryo): http://amzn.asia/0wpKlGK
白河学園 (Shirakawa Gakuen): http://amzn.asia/7EWcYos
聖フランシス子供寮 (St.Francis): http://amzn.asia/d5gemmA
まつば園 (Matsubaen): http://amzn.asia/dZV0Hqw
ポート金が谷 (Port Kanegaya): http://amzn.asia/6IXPEeM
聖ヨセフホーム (St.Joseph's): http://amzn.asia/0GE3v6v
青葉学園 (Aoba Gakuen): http://amzn.asia/cKWodQ7
福島愛育園 (Fukushima Aiikuen): http://amzn.asia/iP6QW3t