Winneshiek County Community Foundation Celebration

On Wednesday, October 17 Kathy Schwartzhoff, Mentoring Coordinator and I attended the Winneshiek County Community Foundation celebration to provide an update on the funding provided to the Youth Mentoring program. We were joined by over 25 other organizations who received funding. The organizations ranged from local fire departments to programs in the community such as the Helping Services Youth Mentoring program. It was inspiring hearing from other organization in the community and the impact we are all having. Winneshiek County Community Foundation is making the county a safer and healthier place for all.

Kathy spent a few minutes discussing how the money we received helped to host focus groups on recruiting male mentors. There are many local boys waiting for mentor matches but we are short on males to mentor. This is a trend in mentoring programs and we see our community members as partners to finding a solution to recruit new mentors. From the advice we received from the focus groups we are running a media campaign and conducting conversations in the community to express the need and information for new mentors. If you or anyone you know would be interested in learning more about mentoring please reach out to Kathy Schwartzhoff at kathys@helpingservices.org or 563-387-1720.

Again, we want to thank the Winneshiek County Community Foundation for their support of our programs and look forward to sharing more about the successes of Youth Mentoring.

Until next time,

Ben Krouse-Gagne
Director of Community Engagement