“This partnership will strengthen both organizations, and most importantly will continue the work of building futures for the children of the South Coast area,” People Incorporated President and CEO, Robert Canuel stated in a local news report. Jim Mathes, Executive Director of the SMILES Mentoring Program, in the same article, agreed. “SMILES just finished its fourth year as a non-profit corporation. In that time, we’ve aggressively grown our programs to now having more than five hundred volunteer mentors working with students in nearly thirty local schools. Our affiliation with People Incorporated will position us for more growth, as we continue toward our goal of three thousand volunteers matched with students who will benefit from having a SMILES mentor in their life,” he said.
A Mentor’s tale In the interest of full-disclosure, I’ve been involved with SMILES for more than four years. Not only did I make a new, young friend back when Zach was in sixth grade, but I also have been able to watch him grow over the years. And I look forward to his new adventures this year as he enters his sophomore year at Durfee. Sometimes, there wasn’t much to say, so we didn’t talk much. Last year, I learned a lot about skateboarding and the other things that matter to a high school student. But no matter what, we both showed up most of the times, and each time we shook hands when we parted ways. We always talked about how he was doing in school and what he was doing outside of school. It was important to me that Zach knew that I was concerned about his work in the classroom—and his behavior outside the classroom. I’m not sure if it made a difference, but I think knowing that I’d ask helped him make the right decisions. Over the past four years, I’ve also observed the interactions of other teams. Everybody brings and gives
different perspectives and approaches to mentoring, but everybody seems to share one thing in common: care and concern for each other. That’s a good thing.
Get involved Again, according to their website and my experience, SMILES recruits adult volunteers from the community to serve as one-to-one mentors with youth in the New Bedford and Fall River areas. SMILES Mentors must be able to complete our screening process, which includes a CORI (criminal background records check), a personal interview, three reference checks, a training session and pre-match orientation. Mentors must agree to the time requirements of the program (one hour a week for a minimum of one program year) and have access to transportation to mentoring activities. School administrators and counselors recommend mentees. Like the South Coast and the SMILES mentors, they come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse needs. The program follows guidelines found in the National Mentoring Partnership’s Elements of Effective Practice. A key component is that there is no contact outside of the SMILES sessions. The matches meet at the same time, once per week for a minimum of one hour at school sites. Does that one hour make a difference? According to research done by the Harvard Mentoring Project, it apparently does. What they call “prominent studies of mentoring programs” found that mentored youth were 46% less likely than their peers to start using illegal drugs, were 27% less likely to initiate alcohol use, were 33% less likely to engage in violence, and skipped school 53% less. I like those odds, so mentoring is a gamble I’m happy to take. To get involved or for more information, visit the SMILES website at www.smilesmentoring.org, contact the office at 508-999-9300, or email nalmeida@ smilesmentoring.org
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The South Coast Insider / December 2010
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