Our StrategyAfter several months of soliciting community input and strategic planning, mentoring was selected as a way to serve students and families in Pendleton.
We created a 3-phase strategic plan for launching the Impact mentoring program. |
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Our method is simple:We connect mentors from local churches with students from local schools." |
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History
The Impact Mentoring Program is a 1-on-1 mentoring program that serves students in the Pendleton community. Pendleton is a town of approximately 17,000 people in Eastern Oregon. It is striking to note that college graduation rates for Umatilla County are much lower than Oregon averages, with only 16% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher.
In 2018, we spent two months soliciting feedback from the community. During qualitative interviews with over 60 community members, mentoring was repeatedly suggested as a needed resource in Pendleton. There are many great organizations serving our community. However, despite the efforts of many local programs, there are still many students in our community who need a relationship with a caring adult. Specifically, community input identified the need for additional programs for elementary-aged students and the desire for a traditional, community-based, 1-on-1 mentoring program.
The Impact Mentoring Program officially launched in October 2018. Our strategy is simple: we connect adults from local churches with students from local schools. We created a multi-phase strategic plan to ensure we were meeting specific goals and growing at a sustainable rate. After two months of mentor recruitment and training, in 2019, we launched on two campuses and targeted 3rd-5th grade students. Based on input from the Pendleton School District, we partnered with Washington Elementary School and Sherwood Heights Elementary School for phase 1. Prior to the launch of the Impact Mentoring Program, we wrote a 3-phase strategic plan with goals for number of matches, as well as quality of the mentoring relationships. Phase 1 culminated with meeting the goal of our first 10 matches by March. In the fall of 2021, we expanded to 5 campuses in Pendleton and to 15 partner churches. We are continually growing to make more mentoring matches on a monthly basis.
We work with a variety of community partners, including local schools and churches. While our mentors are recruited through local churches, mentoring is offered to students in the Pendleton School District without any requirements for participation in religious events. The Bureau of Labor Services identifies that adults are most likely to volunteer for a religious organization and mentoring research has shown that over 40% of mentors in the US serve through faith-based organizations. It is encouraging to see so many congregations working together and sharing ownership of the mentoring program, and it is our privilege to provide churches with another outlet to fulfill God's call to serve the community.
In 2018, we spent two months soliciting feedback from the community. During qualitative interviews with over 60 community members, mentoring was repeatedly suggested as a needed resource in Pendleton. There are many great organizations serving our community. However, despite the efforts of many local programs, there are still many students in our community who need a relationship with a caring adult. Specifically, community input identified the need for additional programs for elementary-aged students and the desire for a traditional, community-based, 1-on-1 mentoring program.
The Impact Mentoring Program officially launched in October 2018. Our strategy is simple: we connect adults from local churches with students from local schools. We created a multi-phase strategic plan to ensure we were meeting specific goals and growing at a sustainable rate. After two months of mentor recruitment and training, in 2019, we launched on two campuses and targeted 3rd-5th grade students. Based on input from the Pendleton School District, we partnered with Washington Elementary School and Sherwood Heights Elementary School for phase 1. Prior to the launch of the Impact Mentoring Program, we wrote a 3-phase strategic plan with goals for number of matches, as well as quality of the mentoring relationships. Phase 1 culminated with meeting the goal of our first 10 matches by March. In the fall of 2021, we expanded to 5 campuses in Pendleton and to 15 partner churches. We are continually growing to make more mentoring matches on a monthly basis.
We work with a variety of community partners, including local schools and churches. While our mentors are recruited through local churches, mentoring is offered to students in the Pendleton School District without any requirements for participation in religious events. The Bureau of Labor Services identifies that adults are most likely to volunteer for a religious organization and mentoring research has shown that over 40% of mentors in the US serve through faith-based organizations. It is encouraging to see so many congregations working together and sharing ownership of the mentoring program, and it is our privilege to provide churches with another outlet to fulfill God's call to serve the community.
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Impact Mentoring: The Data
Based on overwhelming research on the value of mentoring, we propose that mentoring will make a difference by improving academic performance, increasing collegiate attendance, and promoting healthy choices.
- Having a mentor is correlated with youth choosing to engage in positive behaviors, such as participating in extracurricular activities, holding a leadership position, and volunteering in the community.
- Mentored girls are four times less likely to become bullies and mentored boys are two times less likely to become bullies.
- Mentoring decreases the likelihood of substance abuse: mentored youth are 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking than their peers.
- A mentor’s encouragement to engage in healthy activities and dream of college and career aspirations can have a long-term impact on a student’s life and on the community.
- Research shows that students who meet regularly with mentors display a positive attitude toward school and are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school.
- Mentoring is linked to college and career preparation and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to attend college when they have a mentor.
- One marker that can consistently be linked to success is an improvement in grade point average: research shows, the higher the GPA, the better the chances of graduating high school. This academic improvement has a lifelong impact: high school graduates earn on average $130,000 more over the course of their lifetimes than those without a high school diploma, and college graduates earn at least $1 million more over their lifetimes than high school dropouts.
- Having a mentor is correlated with youth choosing to engage in positive behaviors, such as participating in extracurricular activities, holding a leadership position, and volunteering in the community.
- Mentored girls are four times less likely to become bullies and mentored boys are two times less likely to become bullies.
- Mentoring decreases the likelihood of substance abuse: mentored youth are 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking than their peers.
- A mentor’s encouragement to engage in healthy activities and dream of college and career aspirations can have a long-term impact on a student’s life and on the community.
- Research shows that students who meet regularly with mentors display a positive attitude toward school and are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school.
- Mentoring is linked to college and career preparation and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to attend college when they have a mentor.
- One marker that can consistently be linked to success is an improvement in grade point average: research shows, the higher the GPA, the better the chances of graduating high school. This academic improvement has a lifelong impact: high school graduates earn on average $130,000 more over the course of their lifetimes than those without a high school diploma, and college graduates earn at least $1 million more over their lifetimes than high school dropouts.
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In addition to the long-term effects, we hypothesize that after just one year of mentoring, we will see a positive, measurable impact. We administer annual (pre and post) assessments that measure students’ attitude toward school and ability to cope with stress. After one year of mentoring, we will repeat these two tests and collect data on GPA and attendance. We anticipate that mentees will show improvement in emotional health, academic performance, GPA, attendance and engagement at school.
We are excited to report that all of our phase 1 mentees had measurable improvement in a variety of areas! Check out the report! |
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