School Zone
Community Leaders Launch
Enhanced Mentoring Collaboration
Superintendent Joseph Wise
joined Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, City Council
President Michael Corrigan, and Sheriff John Rutherford
for a joint news conference on Wednesday, February 28 to
announce the launch of Mentor Jax. Sparked by the
Blueprint for Prosperity initiative and funded by the
Jacksonville Children’s Commission and Mayor’s Office of
Faith and Community Based Partnerships, this enhanced
collaboration among more than 20 Jacksonville mentoring
organizations will help increase awareness of
mentoring
programs and help provide mentors to youth in the
community.
Individuals interested in
volunteering may learn about more than 50 mentoring
programs in 20-plus organizations by visiting a single
Web site—www.mentorjax.org.
In addition, community leaders are encouraging business,
faith and civic groups to provide volunteers to serve as
mentors.
“There is nothing more
rewarding than making a difference in the life of a
child and one of the most important things we can do to
create the best future for our city is encourage
positive youth development,” said Council President
Corrigan. “We hope that by simplifying the process to
become a mentor, we can connect even more youth to
caring adults in our community.”
“When we were young, many of
us were fortunate to have a caring adult spend time with
us and provide guidance. It is our job as a community
to provide that experience to those children who may not
have such an adult in their lives,” said Mayor Peyton.
“I commend those who are already committing time and
energy to mentor a child and urge others to join this
effort.”
To ensure safety, all
prospective mentors will have their background screened
by partner organization Kesler Mentoring Connection (KMC).
In addition, KMC will provide a free
orientation and training program
to ensure that potential mentors fully
understand their role and responsibilities.
“I believe that reaching out
to a young person—listening to them, providing positive
encouragement—this is a responsibility of all of us,”
said Sheriff Rutherford. “This is how you plant a
seed…whether or not you ever see the harvest. It
doesn’t require formal training or a lot of time to be a
mentor. It only requires that you care about somebody
else.”
Mentoring, as outlined by
Mentor Jax, is an “ongoing relationship between a child
and a caring adult” that contains three essential
qualities: time-sustained, positive role modeling and
visioning for the child’s further development. Research
has indicated that mentoring has a definitive impact on
young people by increasing school attendance, improving
graduation rates and decreasing involvement with drugs,
alcohol and violent behavior.
“Mentors are among the most
rewarding and influential people in students’ lives,”
said Joseph Wise, Superintendent of Schools. “Teachers
note substantial improvements in these students'
academic performance, attendance, and behavior. Time is
the greatest gift that can be given to a student.”
Local mentoring organizations
estimate that approximately 45,000 young people in
Jacksonville could benefit from a mentor. Currently,
there are only about 2,500 active mentors in the city.
Most mentoring programs ask the mentor and mentee to
meet for about one hour per week.
The Jacksonville Children’s
Commission and the Mayor’s Office of Faith and Community
Based Partnerships have jointly allocated $425,000 to
support mentoring initiatives serving at-risk
Jacksonville youth. Kesler Mentoring Connection was
awarded a contract of $100,000 to screen, fingerprint
and refer more than 700 potential volunteers to local
mentoring organizations. Three local non-profit
agencies—Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Florida,
The Bridge of Northeast Florida and Wayman Community
Development Corporation— were granted nearly $325,000 to
expanded direct mentoring services.
In addition, the Jacksonville
Children’s Commission has sponsored a two-day workshop
to create a community mentoring contract among local
agencies, hosted all meetings of the newly formed grass
roots coalition of Mentor Jax and will be provide
contract management of the newly created mentoring
programs.
For more information on the Mentor Jax program,
you may contact Kristen Key with the City of
Jacksonville at 630-2709 or Cynthia Harpman with Mentor
Jax/Kesler Mentoring Connection at 224-2400. For a
complete list of Mentor Jax sponsors, click here. If
you are interested in learning more about Duval County
Public Schools mentoring program, call W.D. Robinson at
390-2511, or send him
an
e-mail.
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