The Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program (CYMP) has been matching eager local youth with volunteer mentors since 2003. The mission of the Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program is to connect Calaveras County young people in first through twelfth grades with safe, positive, adult role models who will offer support, guidance, friendship, and help the youth make healthy life decisions. Potential mentors are thoroughly screened to ensure the safety of everyone in the program. Once matched, mentors and mentees spend a couple of hours a week together for at least a year doing things they both enjoy—sports, crafts, cooking a meal together, or working on a project. Mentors receive extensive pre-match training and then additional training throughout the year, plus regular monitoring of the friendship, as-needed support, and invitations to group field trips and events. It’s fun!
Julia Tidball, principal at Copper Elementary and superintendent for Mark Twain Union School District, says there are several students she would like to recommend for the program. “We have many students who would enjoy and benefit greatly by having a mentor,” she says. “But I don’t want them to have to wait for a match. If we had some wonderful Copper community members who would step up and let us know they are interested in mentoring, I would quickly recommend kids for the program.”
“Being matched with a mentor has made a huge difference in the lives of so many children in our program,” said Colleen Dolan, coordinator of mentoring programs for the Calaveras County Office of Education, which administers the CYMP. “We need volunteer mentors, but we also welcome support for our outreach efforts and help identifying potentially great mentors in the Copper community.”The program offers orientation sessions frequently as a commitment-free way for interested community members to learn more about mentoring. For information about the Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program, please call (209) 736-6078 or visit http://www.calaverasmentoring.org/.
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