The Effects of Mentoring The time you invest in mentoring boosts the probability that your mentee will like school more, make better choices, and succeed later in life. If the Josh Shipp video Grand Area Mentoring shared via email didn’t fully communicate the power of a single caring adult, perhaps some data will. While at-risk kids are often expected to do worse academically over time, 60% of mentored youth in Grand County earn better grades. Match length is an indicator of program and relationship quality. While most school-based matches across the country last about six months, Grand Area Mentoring matches last 27 months, – more than 400% longer. Check the box on reverse to celebrate matches that have lasted more than a year! We can’t wait until all of Grand Area Mentoring’s new matches are on this list too! While at-risk students often struggle with escalating behavior issues over time, last year 72% of mentees earned fewer office referrals than during the previous year. 91% of teachers surveyed agreed that mentored youth in Grand County are less disruptive in class. School-based mentoring encourages school attachment. We have watched a student (who originally missed over 20 days of school per trimester) work on an incentive plan with her mentor to improve her attendance to nearly perfect. 95% of teachers surveyed agreed that mentored youth in Grand County miss less school, and many kids say things like: “I didn’t like school. Now I look forward to mentoring and come to school every day.” What’s the magic element? What makes mentoring so powerful? Perhaps we can allow another group of data points to answer this question. When surveyed at the end of the year, parents, teachers, and mentors agree on which student characteristic seems to be most affected – HAPPINESS. Improved mental health is the real reason for the positive effects of mentoring. To you, the mentor, it may feel trivial to spend a fun hour talking, playing, and doing art at school. But to a child who needs more one-on-one time with a caring adult, this hour is...

Mentoring + Attitudes about School Research from 2013 in the Journal of Youth Development: Bridging Research and Practice by MacArthur (et al) looked at the effects mentoring had on school-related variables such as attitudes toward teachers, classes, and school, “which can be linked to a person’s commitment to learn.” The program examined in the study was structured much like Grand Area Mentoring. In one-on-one pairs, mentors and mentees met weekly for 1-2 hours. They occasionally participated in group activities similar to the off-campus outings GrandAM mentors and students pursue in small groups. The program provided support and ongoing training to its mentors and matches. The Findings...

January is National Mentoring Month! This is a time to expand and strengthen opportunities for top-notch mentoring in the United States. 17 eager students in Moab wait to be matched with a mentor, and we aim to find new mentors for them in 2016. To that end, Grand Area Mentoring will offer a New Mentor Orientation on January 26th, 4:30-6:00. Tell your friends, colleagues, and family members! They can call 260-9646 to register. Beyond new mentor recruitment and program expansion, we also take this month to celebrate all that Moab mentors achieve. Grand Area Mentoring’s corps of volunteers accounts for the program’s unparalleled success year in and year out. Your kindness and guidance help these children grow and allows them to say things like: “I get to try new things, talk freely, and not have to worry about anything.” “She makes me nicer to people because I’m a lot happier than I used to be.” “Mentoring is my favorite thing.” “I get to tell her stuff that I can’t tell other people because they won’t understand it.” “I need to trust someone, so I trust her.” “If you’ve been shy or mad or scared, a mentor will make you feel good and make you not as scared of things…” “I wish I had mentoring every day.”

You Matter Long-term mentoring relationships produce more positive results for at-risk children than shorter ones. If a relationship lasts less than six months, it can even be detrimental to a child! That’s why we ask volunteers and students to commit to mentoring for at least one year. Happily, the average Grand Area Mentoring match lasts over two years! Your time means so much. That’s why we want to tell you that you matter – to us, to your mentee, to the school district, and to this community. We want you to know that...

Mentoring in Moab!

Let's Redefine Value! A 25-year longitudinal study by the University of Florida found that self-confidence impacts life path and rates of success. That’s no surprise. According to a Gallup publication1 by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, “people with higher self-confidence in 1979 ended up with higher income levels and career satisfaction.” What shocked researchers was the magnitude of the impact. After 25 years, the more confident group, on average, made almost $13,000 more per year than their less confident peers. More interesting yet…

Don't Forget to Do Stuff! As mentors, we sometimes feel we must sit down and have heart-to-heart conversations during every weekly session. However, direct discussion is not the sole aim of mentoring. Let’s strive to appreciate that our relationships bloom and produce real results through a key aspect of being human...

Use Humor to Build Happiness Start the year with a gale of laughter. It will relieve stress, entertain, and encourage intimacy. Charlie Appelstein, mentoring coach extraordinaire, encourages youth workers to use humor to strengthen relationships. Laughing together can help form bonds. For example, when interviewed at the end of the year, one mentee said, “We have fun. We laugh together a lot.” This mentee recently called his mentor to ask for homework help at the start of the school year so he can stay up to speed. That relationship started with the bonds of laughter. As mentoring researcher Jean Rhodes pointed out in an article recently, “we tend to…"

Catch Up Over Lunch Mentors and students may meet at HMK’s cafeteria, during the USDA-sponsored FREE SUMMER LUNCH. This is a great opportunity to see each other over the long summer break of June and July. Mentors, please make a record of your summer meetings. Call 260-9646 for more information.

On the Topic of Self-Disclosure