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Mentor Cal Steele of Spring Lake, MI, enjoys the time he spends with youth participants in the Journey Youth Mentoring Progam.
By Megan Townsend
Cal Steele of Spring Lake, Mich., was flipping through the morning newspaper when an advertisement caught his attention. The Michigan State University (MSU) Extension office in Ottawa County was looking for adults to serve as mentors to troubled youth.
| MSU Extension and Michigan 4-H are helping Mentor Michigan achieve its mission of matching the state’s more than 2,300 youth on waiting lists with mentors. |
“I thought to myself, ‘Well, I owe this community something,’” says 79-year-old Steele, a retired engineer and mentor for the Journey Youth Mentoring Program. “So, it’s sort of like a payback, but also a concern with the problems youth face. They deal with situations I never had to when I was growing up.”
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and First Gentleman Dan Mulhern are also concerned with the future of Michigan’s youth, which is why they founded and are committed to expanding Mentor Michigan, a program that works to ensure every young person has an ongoing relationship with a stable, caring adult.
And with mentoring programs in 22 counties, MSU Extension and Michigan 4-H are helping Mentor Michigan achieve its mission of matching the state’s more than 2,300 youth on waiting lists with mentors.
MSU Extension and Michigan 4-H has a long history of adults and youth working together around a common interest. Classified as natural mentoring, effective 4-H clubs and groups bring adults and youth together and over time, a sustained, trusting relationship develops.
The mentoring programs established now through the Explore, Experience, Achieve Through 4-H Mentoring Program take a more intentional approach of planned mentoring as a way to reach currently underserved youth. This year’s goals include training and pairing 600 adults with 1,800 vulnerable youth for positive experiences in counties across the state.
Seventeen of the 22 programs are funded through an AmeriCorps grant, and six of the 17 mentor only youth involved with the juvenile court system. AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs that engage more than 50,000 people each year in intensive service to meet needs in education, public safety, health and the environment. Twenty full-time AmeriCorps volunteers are currently working within the 17 programs on activities such as recruiting mentors, planning educational sessions, creating community mentoring collaboratives and fund-raising.
The Ottawa County Journey Youth Mentoring Program, initiated in 1992, is one of the longest-running MSU Extension-based mentoring programs. Consisting of approximately 35 mentors, including Steele, the program aims to reduce recidivism in delinquent youth, ages 8 to 17.
Journey, as it is commonly called, is a collaborative effort between MSU Extension and the Ottawa County Family Court. Probation officers, therapists and other community agencies refer youth to the program, but they aren’t matched with a mentor until they indicate they’re interested. After being matched, a mentor will spend approximately two hours a week with their mentee for a minimum of one year. Some mentors also visit youth at a local juvenile detention center once a week for one to two hours.
“Our quality of service is consistent and slightly above the national average. Our relationships are lasting longer than the national average too,” says Lisa Bottomley, Ottawa County Extension educator for 4-H Mentoring who serves on the Mentor Michigan Providers Council. “Sure, we’re saving the community money by keeping kids out of detention centers, but we’re also giving kids hope and the skills they need to succeed.”
More than half of the youth in Journey did not commit any offenses after being matched with a mentor, and 83 percent have decreased the frequency of offenses during their match, according to Bottomley.
Through the Ottawa County Mentoring Collaborative Bottomley created in 2000, mentoring staff members from 15 organizations share programming, recruitment and training opportunities. For example, collaborative members plan four activities each month for mentors and youths, such as hayrides or holiday parties.
“The programs try to support each other to make mentoring more affordable,” Bottomley says. “We all care about and want to support these kids.”
Three Mentor Michigan VISTAs (Volunteers in Service to America) also work for the Ottawa collaborative to recruit mentors and support services through activities and partnerships with businesses.
Jennifer Morse works with the Journey program through AmeriCorps. With her help, Bottomley hopes to reach more youth by increasing Journey’s capacity.
“Our goal is to double Journey’s caseload,” Bottomley says. “I see us moving up to between 50 to 60 cases, depending on the intensity of each mentee’s needs.”
Two AmeriCorps members are also helping the Macomb County 4-H Youth Mentor Program. Established in 1991, the program matches adult volunteers with youth, ages 10 to 16 that need guidance, encouragement and direction.
“We’re trying to divert youth from entering more costly levels of treatment,” says Jan Gwozdz, coordinator of the Macomb County mentoring program.
Ninety-three percent of youth involved in the program during 2004 haven’t moved on to a more costly treatment, potentially saving taxpayers $6.5 million, according to Gwozdz.
There are currently 30 mentees and mentors involved with the program. Staff members from the Macomb County Juvenile Court Probation and Prevention or another county agency refer youth to the program, and unlike Journey, some youth are required to participate.
In addition to one-on-one meetings with their mentors for at least an hour per week, the mentees attend life-skills training sessions once a month. MSU Extension staff members and AmeriCorps employees lead workshops on topics such as health and nutrition, conflict resolution, self-esteem and communication skills.
The Ottawa and Macomb programs are only two examples of a statewide mentoring initiative that is growing almost daily, according to Julie Chapin, a 4-H program leader who oversees the Explore, Experience, Achieve through 4-H Mentoring program.
And, with Steele’s help, it will continue to grow. Bottomley says that she refers at least 10 new potential mentors a week. They do not all choose to mentor, and some choose less intense programs, but a good portion choose to get involved.
“It’s not just the mentee you’re confronted with,” Steele says. “It’s everything—the family, problems in school—but it’s all just part of mentoring, and I can’t think of a better way to spend time.”
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