Fostering Discovery

FI's Fostering Discovery Program includes 6-10 outings a year for FI mentees and their mentors. Each outing is planned and implemented by a mentor/mentee team who will work closely with each other to plan an outing from beginning to end. In planning an event, youth will learn valuable skills such as working with a budget, ensuring there is a proper amount of food and drink for participants, soliciting and thanking venues for donations and discounts and working with a guest list (sending out invitations and following up with guests). These skills will teach them how to be responsible and how to work in a team. The teams are encouraged to think outside the box in planning an event such as community outreach projects, fundraisers, and creative events such as filming a movie. However, they are also free to plan other types of events such as BBQs, sporting events and amusement park adventures. Working in these teams, mentees have the benefit of spending countless hours with their mentors that will culminate in a fun event they can share with the rest of the FI mentors and youth.

Each event is also planned to give mentors and mentees time to spend together. "FI is more than an organization, it's a Family!" Martha 15 yr old mentee said. The time spent with our youth is crucial for their social and emotional development. By spending time with their mentors on a regular basis we provide them a stable environment in their unstable lives and a place where they can always receive the support and nurturing they need.

FI's Fostering Discovery Program is run by Dana Bennett, an FI mentor for the past 5 years and former program director.   

On behalf of Surfrider Foundation West LA/Malibu Chapter and Heal the Bay, thank you very much for getting your group together and coming out to be a part of Coastal Cleanup Day. With your participation, we had our best cleanup yet: 154 volunteers and 184 pounds of trash and recyclables collected. We couldn't have done it without your help!

I was so glad to learn of Fostering Imagination and the needs it addresses. Hats off to you for your work and especially for teaching the kids about the environment. I was blown away when I saw you all sitting in a circle playing the pollution game. You rock!

- Laura Boccaletti
Surfrider Foundation West LA/Malibu Chapter

"Soaring through Aviation" FI youth and mentors had the opportunity to learn how to fly and learn about other careers in Aviation from Pilot Phillip Scruggs and Pilot Josh Cobb who met youth at the Santa Monica Airport and gave them a flying lesson and flew them to Catalina Island for a Buffalo Burger lunch.

FI youth and their mentors celebrating Christmas at Knotts Berry Farm on Toys for Tots Day. Our youth learned the importance of giving back through the Toys for Tots program and had a blast riding the rides with their mentors.