People think mentoring a kid is a bigger deal than they can handle. The truth is, when you mentor a kid, you spend a lot of time acting like one — and getting major, grown-up kudos for it.
January is National Mentoring Month. Folks around the country are raising awareness about the importance of positive role models in the life of a child. Dozens of kids in the Atlanta area just need someone to spend about an hour a week with them to do the kinds of things kids do: hang out, play games, talk and have fun. It’s how you show a kid he or she matters, and that can change the world, one kid at a time.
At Southwest Key Programs, where we work with youth who are at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system, we see the relentless impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on children headed down that path. More often than not, they lack a caring network of adults to advocate for them and help them make better decisions about life, friends and school.
There are so many kids in Atlanta who’d be much better off if someone took some time to connect with them. What would happen if each of those children could have just one person in his or her life as a positive, uplifting and inspiring mentor that challenged them to do better, hope for better and aspire to be more? What if someone decided to give of themselves to make someone else’s future a little brighter and more promising?
Many people complain about “this generation” of kids and how disrespectful they are, or how teenagers don’t care about anything and are apathetic. But what if someone took it upon themselves to inspire these kids? Raising a child is not a one-person show. Were your parents the only ones responsible for the adult you became? Sometimes, we all need our village to give us that extra push to get it right.
According to the MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, if a child has a mentor, that child is 52 percent less likely to skip school, 46 percent less likely to begin using illegal drugs, and 27 percent less likely to start drinking.
Mentoring works. It changes lives, and not just the life of the child involved. Each day I work with kids at Southwest Key, they teach me something new. The culmination of these lessons helped me become the man I am today. You don’t need a fancy degree. You just need to be yourself and share what you’ve learned from your own life experiences. It’s really that easy.
Atlanta has a new youth mentoring program, thanks to a $1 million federal grant from the Department of Justice. The grant comes as the Atlanta metro area is experiencing a shortage of volunteers. This shortage has left many kids, particularly young men of color, with nowhere to turn. The Southwest Key Youth Mentoring Program is helping connect these kids with men and women like you for a one-hour-a-week commitment that lasts one year.
Southwest Key has worked in the Atlanta area for more than 10 years, providing alternatives to incarceration programs for youth. We have been mentoring in other parts of the United States for years and are excited to bring this evidence-based program to Atlanta. Our free mentoring program here launched Jan. 1. We are working with school counselors and probation officers to recruit youth who are at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system and could benefit from a caring mentor relationship.
So get involved, make a difference, change a life and grow as a person. Mentor a child today.
For more information, contact Atlanta program director Kelly Graham, kgraham@swkey.org, or go to: http://www.swkey.org/programs/mentoring/
Juan Sanchez is president and CEO of Texas-based Southwest Key Programs.
