Ask you to consider mentoring a kid: www.mentoring.org

CASA is one of those organizations that just works. It’s brilliant in it’s simplicity. Social Workers are overworked, so are foster parents…stuff gets missed when a child in foster care is shuffled around. A CASA is an advocate for the child. They only have one case at a time. They interview everyone involved make a report for the judge and spend some quality time with the kiddo to make sure they are doing okay. The judge can make a sound longterm placement decision in the best interest of the child.
http://www.nationalcasa.org/

I ran into a man that attended one of my mentoring workshops and his new mentee. The kid was this great 12 year old boy and they were going to go work on fixing up an old lawn mower to give to his mom. They’d been together for about 3 months now and had gotten together pretty regularly to do stuff like go bowling or check out cars. I’m really proud of that friendship and my little part in it.

http://www.nationalcasa.org/

I’m leading a training right now of 15 people who are becoming CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates). I’m so amazed and inspired by them for taking this on. It only takes 10-15 hours a month but you speak for a child in foster care during their families court proceeding. You meet the people in their world, ask their point of view and write a report for the judge at the end of the case recommending health services and placement that would help them becoming functioning people. This is one of the most effective volunteer jobs out there. It works. These judges only have 10 minutes to decide someones life. They really appreciate a CASA whose been there regularly for a year or so.

I heard an interview about the juvenile justice system in New Orleans on NPR. This judge talked about kids being picked up for truancy charges and spending the weekend with murderers. Then they are recruited by the more hardened kids to become criminals. He said as a kid he was just like them. But in each difficult phase of his life he had ONE adult who was there to encourage him and try to keep him on the right path. Just one. He said that’s all these kids need too. I believe that. We make our social problems so damn complicated. People, there’s a child in your community who would benefit from one visit a week from you. Take them with you to do the stuff you already do. Enjoy a ballgame, go to a kid movie. Get to know them. So when the time comes that they are going to make that bonehead life altering decision, you can be that person in their path who says, you’re better than that. They will thank you later for saving their life.

to encourage a kid and change their life forever. A kind word about them or noticing something special about their abilities and telling them. Think how you’ve reflected over and over about grown=ups that you admired who saw something special in you or took time with you. You can do the same for someone else. Making our world better is really a series of small kindnesses done over time.

...who is interested in being a mentor. She’s a college basketball player and 19. She was worried that her age was a problem. Not at all. She’d have so much to offer a kid in a big sister kind of way. People who get involved in our lives mentor us in so many ways and influence for better and worse. I encourage any of you reading this to consider being a mentor. You could change someones life for the better just by letting them see your life.

I realize I’m asking people to have a relationship with a stranger…at first. After their initial experience they usually find a bridge interest. Something in common that they can share as friends. Mentoring is one of the most fun volunteer jobs out there. The kid gets a lot out of it because you let him see another person’s life up close. But you probably get more out of it than him. It’s the great secret of volunteering.

So I see some themes developing about mentoring in my writing about it. One is that it works. Research supports what we’ve all sort of known all along is that kids who are mentored improve academically, have better relationships with their parents and peers, feel more hopeful about their futures and feel more supported by their community. Another theme I’m hammering out there is that most of us don’t have global reach…we don’t have the opportunity of George Bush and others…however we can get involved with one child, alter that person’s life by two degrees for the positive. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much but 2 degrees over the course of a life time, especially when you realize that he/she will interact with 1000s of people. Well that’s significant. All you had to do was show up once a week and eat some french fries with him or go on a bike ride. Mostly kids learn from being exposed to good atmospheres and experiences and only a little by what we say.

I was so pleased to see both men and women showing up at the mentoring fair last night. About 15 people. Of that I’d guess 4 will actually get involved. Maybe more. It’s so great to see some of my efforts bearing fruit. Most came because I wrote a piece on mentoring for the paper. A couple came because I sent a volunteer out to speak to a local civic group and then I followed up and called them.

I’ve written a piece for my local paper about it. Contacted as many people as I can think of to tell them about it. Invited mentors to talk. Okay not much left to do but visualize lots of cool people filling the room.