Youth Mentoring Expands
Youth Mentoring has expanded into Southern Fayette County and Clayton County after being awarded funding through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The growth of Youth Mentoring at Helping Services provides the opportunity to add a staff member, with Jenny Rose becoming the Clayton County Youth Mentoring Coordinator in January. Since starting in this role, Jenny has been working on raising awareness of mentoring in Clayton County and connecting with many different groups and organizations to talk about what mentoring is and the benefits of mentoring in the county. A large part of establishing mentoring in Clayton County is finding mentors for community-based and school-based mentoring. As of April 2024, the program has one community-based mentor trained and ready to be matched with youth and five school-based mentors. One mentee is waiting for a mentor in the Garnavillo area.
Southern Fayette County is also seeing success with the growth of school-based mentoring. Sam Howell, the mentoring coordinator for Southern Fayette County, has been working hard to get mentoring established in the three school districts. Both Starmont and West Central have a mentoring program up and running with 6 current matches at Starmont and 4 new matches in the works for West Central. The Oelwein School District has agreed that mentoring is a great opportunity for their students, and it is a goal to get the program ready for the 2024-2025 school year! The programs will continue to grow through different recruitment opportunities while mentoring makes an established name for itself in Southern Fayette County!
For information on how to get involved with mentoring in Clayton County, reach out to Jenny Rose at (319) 290-9282. If you want more information on Southern Fayette County, reach out to Sam Howell at (563) 379-3454, or online at www.helpingservices.org/mentoring. For information on how to get involved in Allamakee, Howard, or Winneshiek Counties, contact mentoring@helpingservices.org or call (563) 387-1720.
