About Us

Sparking growth through volunteerism

We believe that children can understand the world and develop their knowledge and abilities by participating in enrichment opportunities such as Spark Growth! This program is designed to involve not just the children, but also their parents and families, in various literacy and creative activities. By doing so, we make literacy and art a means for them to interpret the world, create a sense of community, and contribute to society.

We are of the opinion that children's literacy and art knowledge and development, as well as parent-family involvement, can be significantly improved through the incorporation of these 5 practices into our enrichment program: Print, Presence, Intention, Time, and Words.

Our goal is to motivate children to become enthusiastic readers, writers, and artists. We are committed to supporting children's learning by igniting their growth through our enrichment program, thus providing a service that fosters lifelong learners.

How We Help

The Spark Growth! Literacy and Art Enrichment Program is free for young children and their families in the Morongo Basin. Our volunteers are supportive and knowledgeable, with career and educational achievements.

We travel to various schools, family daycare homes, and homeschool sites in the Morongo Basin, offering engaging activities based on research and tailored to children's developmental needs. Our activities and lessons align with curricular standards and goals and are conducted in partnership with site supervisors.

Our program is designed to establish and maintain quality interactions, positive relationships, and ongoing communication with all participants. We are committed to working collaboratively and supportively with site administrators, instructors, childcare staff, and individual families.

We aim to spark children's interest in reading and creativity through literacy and art enrichment activities.

Meet The Management Team

Melanie Shannon

Linda Mahany

Cyarah Stine

Kevin Shannon

Executive Director

Melanie Shannon, Executive Director, is passionate about helping children develop creativity and create positive connections in their learning environments. She has more than 20 years of experience teaching children and adults over the course of her career, including working in a citywide summer camps, local schools, church and childcare programs. Previously, Melanie was a college professor at the local community college, (Copper Mountain College) in Joshua Tree, California. Throughout her career she has discovered how to use her artistic talents to spend countless hours volunteering with dance studios, local elementary, middle schools and day cares. Involving herself with arts and crafts activities focused on enrichment and whole child connections. Her focus on art and literacy evolved after she began writing, illustrating and publishing children's books over the course of three years. Her attempt to donate books locally to child literacy programs revealed the fact that there is a deficit in the Morongo Basin for supplemental and supportive programs children need. This prompted a need for action. Which is where the proposal of her Mother's Master's work in a literacy program paired with art, music, and singing to create Spark Growth! outreach literacy and art program for the children of the Morongo Basin.

Director

Linda Mahany was born and raised in Yucca Valley. She graduated from Yucca Valley High School in 1991. Linda worked at San Bernardino County Probation at Central Valley Juvenile Detention Center (CVJDAC) for over 18 years. Working with high risk juveniles. Before working at probation center, Linda was an Emergency Medical Technician with Morongo Basin Ambulance for 5 years, working here in the Morongo Basin. Linda decided to volunteer with Spark Growth Program to work with children and help educate through the arts. Linda feels the program is a great way to get the youth involved in art and literature through fun activities and also helps get the parents involved with take home activities. With Linda’s past involvement with at risk juveniles, it is a great way for her to be involved and help by connecting with children. Linda hopes to try and help the students engage in positive activities to build and enrich their lives.

Volunteer Coordinator

Cyarah Stine, Volunteer Coordinator, is eager to provide opportunities to be apart of young children's growth. As a communications college graduate, Cyarah knows the importance of a strong and positive connections in the classroom. She has worked in the Morongo Unified school district as a Positive Behavior Instructional Assistant. She also has nine years of child care experience and three years of volunteer experience; mainly in the field of education and communication. Throughout her career, she has discovered the value of giving young children the proper tools to communicate and express their feelings. Cyarah's focus is on bridging the gap between community connection and service by selecting qualified volunteers for our program. Cyarah is enthusiastic about utilizing community members to guide children through creative enrichment activities. Her vision is to aid individual volunteers to invest in connecting with children while teaching language and art, which in turn builds a solid foundation for the future.

Program Assistant

Kevin Shannon, born into a military family, has been raised in Yucca Valley since 1985 and graduated from Yucca Valley High School in 1989. He has worked in various service industries throughout his career. His current position with Avidex Technologies, where he diligently works in various school sites installing audio and visual technologies to assist teachers and staff, showcases his unwavering commitment. Kevin volunteers with the Spark Growth Program, a community initiative he deeply believes in. He sees the program as a valuable gift to the community and his volunteerism as a way to give back. His current involvement with cadets in the Civil Air Patrol is another example of his commitment to helping children. Kevin's goal is to inspire students by engaging in positive activities that enrich their lives.

Board Members

Lupe Behncke

Lupe Behncke is a retired San Bernardino County worker of 18 years and a Marine Corps Veteran. Also working at Youth for Progress and Mattel Toys. Lupe grew up in Los Angeles, relocating to San Diego and finally resided in Yucca Valley since 1987. Lupe has had a long dedicated service history of volunteering with PTA at Friendly Hills elementary school, President of Yucca Valley Sand Sharks in the 90’s, Cub Scout Leader and at Mara’s Christmas Wish. Lupe feels that reading and art are so very important to a child’s development and wants to do what she can to help.

Walter Brescia

Walter Brescia works in the medical field and is pursuing his Associates Degree in Nursing at Copper Mountain College. Walter has worked and volunteered with kindergarten children for most of his life. Walter joined Spark Growth to stay active in the development and well-being of the youth in the Morongo Basin.

Alicia Murphy

Alicia Murphy is an aspiring primary school teacher raised in the Morongo Basin. Alicia graduated from California State University San Bernardino and is in pursuit of her Masters degree in Education. She is employed with Morongo Unified School District and has 6 year of educational experience at the elementary and middle school level. Alicia's undergraduate degree emphasis is in Special Education and she has 4 years of Instructional Assistant experience in the field, giving her great respect and appreciation of inclusive and child centered education. Alicia believes that every child has great potential and she hopes that through her actions of leadership and advocacy she can enact positive change in the lives of children in the Morongo Basin. Alicia joined Spark growth to give back to the community that raised her and hopes to contribute in a way that honors and inspires the intellectual property created by the children in our community.

Melanie Stine-Shannon

President/ CFO

Cyarah Stine

Secretary

Linda Manhany

MISSION STATEMENT

Spark Growth! is a Literacy and Art Enrichment Program whose mission is to provide young children and their families with opportunities to participate in a voluntary, engaging, hands-on, inclusive, quality, and developmentally appropriate Literacy and Art Enrichment Program to be offered on a monthly basis free of charge at various sites and schools within the Morongo Basin. This literacy and art program is intended to enhance ongoing efforts by private and public schools, family daycare homes, home schools, parents, caregivers and family members as they instruct, tutor, and assist young children in the development, acquisition, and proficiency of literacy and creative skills.

The underlying goal for the Spark Growth! Literacy and Art Enrichment Program is to ‘spark’ an interest -- intrinsically motivate children -- in their development and proficiency of reading, writing, communication, creativity and literacy-related skills. As a part of this goal, this enrichment program will utilize a ‘whole child’ approach which recognizes and values 6 domains of development as vital in children's overall learning: aesthetic, affective, cognitive, language& literacy, physical, and social.

This enrichment program is also intentional in its mission to plan and design meaningful, interactive, hands-on, purposeful activities and lessons - taking into consideration the goals of the lesson/activity and relevance to the level of child’s interest, and to the child’s individual capabilities. Additionally, the enrichment program promotes and encourages children’s sense of self-efficacy due to its focus on providing consistent, non-judgmental support during formal or informal instruction, activities, and experiences. It is our contention that mistakes are opportunities to learn and that meaningful, purposeful, and interactive activities/lessons are foundational supports for young children as they become aware of and attempt various methods or strategies useful in their acquisition/proficiency of literacy and creative skills.

Of great importance as well is our mission to build and maintain positive, trusting relationships and connections with children, parents, caregivers, families and adults participating in the program. Caring, respectful relationships such as these have the potential to contribute to children’s sense of competence in their overall learning and development. Connecting with and maintaining genuine, positive relationships with children, families and supportive adults present opportunities for collaborative, respectful and intentional learning. As a result, children to come to the realization they are valued, contributing members not only of their learning community but the community at large - motivated to continue in the acquisition of knowledge and skills in many areas.

PHILOSOPHY

Early on, children search for ways to make sense of their world, to discover new information and acquire knowledge and skills. They have a need to explore, to engage frequently and deeply in a range of activities that are meaningful, relevant, age and individually appropriate -- allowing them to take control of their own learning.

Our belief is that children can make sense of their world and grow in knowledge and skills by taking part in enrichment opportunities such as Spark Growth where children along with their parents and families can participate in a variety of literacy and art activities so that literacy becomes a way for them to ‘read the world’, have a sense of community and contribute creatively to the world as well.

Our hope is to inspire children to become passionate readers, writers and creatives. We strive to provide support in children’s learning by ‘sparking growth’ through our literacy and art enrichment program providing a service that grows lifelong learners.

Transparency

Please click on the document link to view documents regarding Spark Growth Program.

Annual Budget

California Charitable Organization Registration

Federal Exempt Letter

California Annual Registration Renewal Fee Report (RRF-1)

Current Federal Tax Filing

California Annual Treasurer's Report (CT-TR-1)

California Tax Exempt Letter

California State Charitable Certification (S-100)

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Spark Growth is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, age, protected medical condition, genetic information, disability or any other protected status in accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws. Spark growth is opposed to any form of less favorable treatment and aims to create a culture that respects and values each other’s differences. Spark Growth sees these differences as an asset to our work as they improve our ability to meet the needs of the organizations and people we serve.