By Megan Haviland
Nearly one in five youth live in poverty and are at risk of falling prey to crime, drugs and other hurdles that could keep them from reaching productive adulthood, obtaining an education and successfully entering the workforce. Also, research shows that youth are more likely to succeed with the support of a caring adult.
Research shows that mentors can play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to make responsible choices, attend and engage in school and reduce or avoid risky behavior such as drug use. In turn, these young people are:
• 55 percent more likely to be enrolled in college
• 81 percent more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities
• 78 percent more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities
• And more than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.
Yet, the same research shows that 9 million young people in our country will grow up without a mentor.
In an effort to help more kids and teens achieve, the YMCA of Grays Harbor is offering the Reach & Rise Mentoring Program. The YMCA of Grays Harbor is one of 38 Y’s now offering the program. The national YMCA program, supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, connects youth ages 6 to 17 with adult mentors for 12-18 months.
The Reach & Rise Mentoring Program was created to match mentors with youth who have social, emotional, behavioral, family, and/or mental health needs. The youth are considered “at-risk” because they are at risk of not reaching a productive and healthy adulthood because of limited positive support and being faced with challenges. Mentors will help youth move from risk to resiliency by increasing their opportunities to develop healthy relationships and increase their connectedness to families, school, community, and employment.
Many youth in the Reach & Rise Mentoring Program are growing up with parents and caregivers who struggle with financial stress, in single parent households, have limited time with parent/caregivers, lack resources and support, live with high rates of poverty and/or have experienced abuse, trauma and/or crime. These are contributing factors that can increase a young person’s chances of becoming involved with truancy, juvenile crime, substance use, gang involvement, and/or experiencing low self-esteem, social isolation, family problems, peer conflicts, academic underachievement, poor decision making, depression, anxiety and/or other mental health problems.
One of the most powerful protective factors emerging from resiliency studies is the presence of caring, supportive relationships (National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center). A mentoring model based on therapeutic concepts has proven to be the best practice for mentoring youth. Therefore, the purpose of Reach & Rise is to go beyond basic mentoring and train adult volunteers to be therapeutic mentors who can help youth experience positive, consistent, and supportive relationships.
The mentoring program was designed using basic therapeutic principals of how to work with children and youth. The intention of using the word therapeutic is to focus our understanding of emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges that youth may experience. Once that is understood, then we train mentors on practical approaches to help facilitate positive change. Therapeutic mentors are trusted counselors, guides, friends, role models and supporters.
Unique features of the Reach & Rise Mentoring Program are:
• Training and on-going support throughout the process
• Monthly check-ins with program director
• Monthly mentor support meetings
• Youth will have individualized goals or “growth plans” created
• Mentors & mentees will explore mentee’s career options &/or future goals
• Youth & families will be connected to additional supports as needed or desired (for example, family counseling, shelters, YMCA gyms, etc.)
• And group activities for mentors, mentees, and/or families.
Reach & Rise requires all mentors to be 21 years and older, go through a background check, screening, at least 15 hours of training, and meet with their youth for 1-3 hours/week for a one-year commitment. This program has proven to help youth express their feelings, improve school grades, expect more from them, get along better with others, become more involved in enrichment programs and take part in after-school activities.
The next training is scheduled to begin Feb. 27 from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. To learn more, contact Megan Haviland at the YMCA of Grays Harbor; (360)537-9622×102; mhaviland@ghymca.net; or visit http://www.ghymca.net/programs/.
Megan Haviland is Reach & Rise Mentoring Program Director at the YMCA of Grays Harbor.
