USU mentoring program changes children's lives

By Lori Bonham

November 16, 2004 | Utah State University's Youth and Families with Promise (YFP) program has mentors working with youth locally and throughout the state to decrease juvenile crimes and illegal activity.

YFP has three goals, their first is to improve academic performance; second, improve interpersonal competence; and the third is to strengthen family bonds.

"Overall focus of the program is to provide the youth with another adult to look up to and to interact with," Sharilee Guest, Cache Valley site coordinator said. The impact that mentors have on the youth is amazing and the changes in the youth from mentors are unbelievable, she said.

According to the National Mentoring Partnership, a mentor "is an adult who, along with parents, provides young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example."

Mentors at YFP work with youth for one to two hours a week, Guest said, and mentors who volunteer for YFP commit 10-12 hours each month to spend with the youth.

YFP has two facilities in Cache Valley. These two facilities at various sites help YFP reach every youth who needs help in changing their lives for the better, she said.

One youth tells her success story of the YFP program which is posted on the Web site, "A fifth mentee wrote the Site Coordinator a letter and told her, 'I just love your program! It's so much fun. I'm glad I'm in it.'" The mentor who works with the youth weekly make an impact by being a friend, a good listener, helping the youth with their homework and spending time with them.

Maren Farnsworth, public relations service director at USU said, "The rewards which come from being a mentor are priceless and the experiences you have by serving the youth are memorable."

In another interview with a USU student with Belinda Lopez who works as a mentor at an after school program she said, "In the past four weeks I have already seen progress in my studen'ts ability to read, and her self-esteem has also increased from working with her."

A mentor at YFP meet with youth once a week for either an hour or two, Guest said. It's up to the mentor and the youth to decide what they should do, the mentors have taken youth to do service projects and have also focused on reading or other skills that the youth need to work on.

Once a month all the mentors and youth meet and have a big activity, which is planned by the YFP committee, she said.

"Mentors, youth, and parents also attend a monthly "family night out" which is a group activity designed to strengthen family bond and have fun," according to the Utah Reach.

Guest said mentors only have to plan activities for their youth twice a month and the other two times they meet are planned by the YFP program committee.

The support of YFP has increased since it was first started at USU. This is the fourth year YFP has been able to run statewide, said Tom Lee, USU family and human development professor, in a newspaper article in The Utah Statesman.

Lee, creator and former project director of YFP, said there are more than 34 programs in 21 Utah counties, YFP has served more than 700 at risk youth, and another 2,000 of their family members during the last academic year.

YFP main source of funding are state grants, Guest said, they apply for smaller grants and also work with local businesses and organizations for funding. They also try to get discounted or donated tickets to sporting events and other events happening throughout the state.

This year YFP has received a $989,477 grant from the Small Business Administration, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced Oct. 1 in an article in the The Utah Statesman.Hatch has previously given grants to the YFP program, in a press release sent out by Hatch's office on Aug. 7, 2001, the Justice Department awarded a grant in the amount of $748,350 to them.

The government sees the impact which the YFP program has had on the youth throughout the state and the United States Department of Justice has selected YFP for an internal evaluation, according to the Statesman. The department began a formal, three-year assessment of the program's impact in October, as a possible prelude to using it as a model.

For more information about volunteering as a mentor, call the Youth and Families with Promise, contact the Site Coordinator for Cache Valley, Sharilee Guest, at 435-753-1745.

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