Program offers benefits for student mentors
Who mentored you? Pass it on. Mentor a child. This is just one of the ideas behind the Youth and Families with Promise program, YFP, which is making some big changes that could affect a few student’s lives this upcoming school year.
YFP is designed to increase characteristics and strengths of youth ages 10-14 and their families. According to their website, whomentoredyou.vpweb.com, this mission is accomplished by utilizing one-to-one mentoring, involvement in 4-H clubs and family activities.
Sharilee Griffiths, Program Director of YFP said this organization is similar to a big brother, big sister program. They are geared toward preventing children from “living in a bubble” and helping those children whose parents may have a difficult time taking care of them.
The program is comprised of four key components. The first of those components is one-to-one mentoring. This allows volunteer mentors to work directly with the youth to help build skills they need to succeed in the world. Griffiths said one of the program’s main focuses is the benefits provided to mentors that will help them become dedicated to the child they are guiding.
“We had a lot of mentors that came at the beginning of the year and wanted to mentor, but they fizzled out,” Griffiths said.
“That does more damage to these kids. Being a mentor, a committed mentor, makes a huge impact. It really blesses their lives. They have had enough adults fizzle out on them and not be reliable.”
This upcoming year, YFP has teamed up with PALS to create an even larger mentoring program and to provide more students the chance to mentor young children. A mentor will be committed to spend one hour per week with the assigned youth and report the activity online. They must attend mentor training held bi-monthly. Also, they must communicate regularly with the mentee’s parent so they become familiar and gain trust with the mentor.
Students who mentor can receive two upper-division credits. This is a new addition to the program which Griffiths said they are excited about. The class is a pass or fail course that students must take for both semesters and YFP pays for the credit. Students are required to attend all of the trainings, and write two papers throughout the course of the two semesters.
Additionally, mentors are given many free tickets to concerts, community activities and plays to attend with their mentees. They receive service hours for graduate school applications and an additional item to place on their resume. Also, up to ten students have the opportunity to receive a scholarship through AmeriCorps.
However, Griffiths said mentors must be able to mentor for a full school year. Cassie Glade, PALS director, said mentoring for the full year is crucial.
“After six months of mentoring is when you are actually making a change,” Glade said. “If it is less than four months, it can be detrimental.”
PALS is an organization through the Val R. Christensen Service Center, and is a program similar to YFP. PALS recruits students and matches them with children in the 6-9 age group, whereas YFP is matched with children ages 10-14.
Glade said PALS is excited about the collaboration with YFP because they feel it will help their organization get their feet on the ground and give them the ability to serve more youth while doing it.
“This is great for us because YFP is very structured. Our goal this year is to create structure with leadership roles for both mentors and students,” she said.
Another component of YFP is the family night-out activities. Griffiths said these are activities designed to help improve family relationships. Training and a vast selection of resources will be available for parents of participating youth. Many of these activities will be held for those also participating in PALS in hopes of making life more consistent for the families.
“The smoother transition we can make on the families, the better, Griffith said. “With the PALS mentors for example, as the youth move to YFP, the mentors will move with them.”
Griffith said up to one hundred mentoring positions, for YFP and PALS combined, are opened for this school year. Students who are interested in becoming a mentor for both the Youth and Families with Promise program or PALS, can attend the recruitment carnival today from 11 – 3 on the front lawn of the Living Learning Center.
A recruitment activity will also take place at the Logan Aquatic Center Friday Sept. 3. Email Griffiths at cacheyfp@gmail.com for more information on the activity or for any questions or the Youth and Families with Promise program.
If you are interested in becoming a mentor or have any questions about PALS, email Glade, or Braden Thompson, co-director of PALS, at pals@aggiemail.usu.edu.
–courtnie.packer@aggiemail.usu.edu