Family of Friends

Family of Friends focuses on creating a community of adult support around kids to help them thrive. Through individual and family-style mentoring, volunteers partner with parent/guardians to spend time once a week with a young person, doing fun activities of their choice and building the foundations for leadership. Through these weekly activities, mentors help open up pathways for kids to see themselves as powerful and practice making healthy choices. Even more, kids build a trusted relationship with another adult outside school and home, who is on their team. But kids aren’t the only ones who benefit. Parents get an advocate for their child in the community, and volunteers get to share their time and experience and help a young person grow. Everyone gains a deeper understanding of the world around them. After a minimum of one year, matches may continue with the same child or mentor, or be re-matched with someone new. Children may continue with their mentors until they graduate from high school. Most matches stay formally involved in the program for an average of two to three years. More than half of these graduate to “Alumni” status. This is when a match reaches a natural state of connection and want to stay affiliated but no longer need formal support from the program. Professional staff provide high-quality training, screening and coaching every step of the way, so that each match is as successful as possible.

• Fundraising/Campaigning
• Mentoring/Youth Development

• In person: Ongoing