Posted by: Tracy Oster, Communities In Schools of Federal Way
As Executive Director of Communities In Schools of Federal Way, I have to say, I love my job and I love my community. One of the biggest challenges our staff and Board of Directors face is getting people in our community to volunteer. I don’t think this is any different from other communities. In fact, in talking to other volunteer recruiters, they say we are actually doing a “pretty good” job in Federal Way of getting people engaged. But “pretty good” just isn’t good enough.
FWPS has over 22,000 students – and of those, approximately 43% are eligible for free or reduced lunch. (This year, that number will most likely be higher.) That makes nearly 10,000 students in our school district living at or below the federal poverty level. Often these students face challenges to their success that have nothing to do with academic abilities. Every one of those students – along with many others – would benefit from a one-to-one relationship with a caring adult.
Each school year, we get a list of students that are referred to our PASS Mentoring Program. And each year, we end up with students who don’t get mentors, simply because there are not enough caring adults who take action and volunteer. I know that Federal Way and many other communities have caring adults who have a heart for education and youth. We get a lot of interest on our website and from the community. However, “having a heart” isn’t enough – we need people to take action.
I recently had a Board member who suggested we weren’t being “aggressive enough” in our recruitment of mentors. I believe what he meant was, there is such a need in the schools that we really need to figure out how to increase our mentor recruitment efforts exponentially so we can come close to serving the number of students that would really benefit from a one-to-one relationship with a caring adult.
The research on mentoring clearly shows that having a mentor can make a positive impact on a child in many ways. Children who have mentors have improved academic performance, higher graduation rates, increased communication skills, improved family/peer relationships and improved self-esteem. In Federal Way, students who participate in our PASS Mentoring Program showed a 79% increase in attendance last year and a 95% of the students were promoted to the next grade. Mentoring works!
I know that people care and they understand the benefits of mentoring. What about you? Is this you? Do you have a heart for youth and education AND are ready to take action? Check out www.cisfederalway.org or call CIS of Federal Wayat 253-528-0847 to sign up today. It is time!