With all the well-documented harm caused to children by COVID-19 — including not attending school and being denied social contact — positive impacts did occur locally during the pandemic regarding a mentoring program targeting at-risk youth.
First, the program for which a $110,000 grant was awarded in 2019 through the efforts of Mount Airy Parks and Recreation did manage to carry on despite the coronavirus, being conducted virtually. And another bit of good news surrounds an extra lease on life it’s received — which is actually a direct result of the pandemic.
“Our grant was extended for another year,” Youth Mentorship Coordinator Jaimi Scott, a city recreation department employee, said of the funding from the National Recreation and Park Association. It initially was awarded in April 2019 for a three-year period to match adults providing positive role models with youngsters in need of such intervention.
“They gave us an additional year since COVID hit,” Mount Airy’s assistant parks and recreation director, Cathy Cloukey, said of the granting agency.
Need for mentors
“We just wanted to let people know that we’re still going strong,” Scott said in announcing the continuation of the program for longer than first expected.
But that one-year reprieve also has presented another need surrounding the effort:
“We’re looking for mentors,” Scott said in putting out a call for adult volunteers to fill a key role in ensuring the ongoing success of a program deemed critical in addressing the plight faced by some local kids.
The $110,000 grant from the National Recreation and Park Association was awarded to Mount Airy as a direct result of the opioid crisis’ effects on local children and families.
This coincided with a large number of overdoses in Surry County, resulting in Mount Airy being one of only five communities in a six-state area receiving the federal funding to address the opioid crisis in a unique way. It involved being proactive rather than reactive, city Parks and Recreation Director Darren Lewis said in 2019.
This subsequently led to the formation of the G.R.A.N.I.T.E. Mentorship Program through a partnership involving parks and rec, Mount Airy City Schools and WorkForce Unlimited. In addition to referring to Mount Airy’s reputation as the Granite City, those letters stand for grow, resource, achieve, nurture, inspire, teach and empower.
The program seeks to spawn positive interactions between mentors and public school students in grades 1-12 and support families to produce future leaders who are academically and socially successful.
Traci Haynes George, a WorkForce official and longtime community volunteer, said Thursday that the mentoring program had its roots in a Lunch Buddies initiative launched years ago by Polly Long of Mount Airy City Schools which had similar goals.
“That’s how this all kind of got started,” George recalled.
“Polly was instrumental in getting the (mentoring) program up and running,” Cloukey concurred, also directing credit George’s way:
“She has been an invaluable mentor.”
While the effort originally targeted youths affected by the opioid crisis, the scope has been broadened to include others who can benefit from adult role models absent from their lives because of a variety of circumstances.
George mentioned one case in which a single mother of six can’t devote that much individual attention to her children, which is supplemented by the mentoring.
Long said youths aided by the program can be defined as those in which a mentor offers them a relationship they don’t have for whatever reason. They are referred to it by sources including school guidance counselors.
Pandemic struggles
Since the program started, 23 matches have been made between adults and students, according to Cloukey, who mentioned that several other children have been referred to program operators whom they are trying to hook up with mentors.
“A couple of matches dissolved because of COVID,” she said, while also pointing out that most of the mentors and kids have decided to continue in the program for another year.
“We did a lot of virtual Zoom meetings then,” Scott said of efforts to maintain it amid coronavirus social-distancing restrictions, involving activities such as arts and crafts.
Long credits Scott with going the extra mile to keep the program afloat during the difficult COVID period that presented many challenges.
Cloukey says Scott’s involvement has resulted in a bonus to the youths involved due to the attention he devotes to them. “They have ended up with two mentors.”
“We’ve seen improvements in the mentees’ behavior over the course of the school year,” George said of the extra support from their adult matches.
In the effort to “re-raise awareness” of it, as termed by George, others from the community are being recruited for the program that includes assisting youths in the development of short- and long-term goals.
“We are open for new mentors and mentees,” Cloukey said of seeking to make additional matches and thus maximize the one-year extension. “I think we could easily hit 30.”
Interested persons can apply as a mentor online by filling out a form on the program website at https://www.mountairy.org/DocumentCenter/View/2179/Youth-Mentorship-Program-Forms
They also can contact Scott or Cloukey at Reeves Community Center.
Scott said applicants must undergo a background check and training.
Parents and guardians of the youths involved also give permission for them to participate, with Cloukey agreeing that parents’ and guardians’ support has been a big plus for the program.
Mentors are asked to meet with their students at least one hour per week for a year.
Scott said the initial sessions between the two occur at city recreational facilities such as Reeves Community Center and gradually branch out from there.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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