Growing Kings gives update on ‘100 mentors in 100 days’ campaign
Having role models can make a big impact on a child’s life, and one Birmingham nonprofit aims to provide strong mentors for local students.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Having role models can make a big impact on a child’s life, and one Birmingham nonprofit aims to provide strong mentors for local students.
You may remember back in June Growing Kings kicked off its “100 mentors in 100 days” with the goal of recruiting at least 100 mentors. They say they’ve exceeded that goal, but they’re still actively recruiting as their mentorship program is officially underway.
“We’re walking around having those conversations,” Program Manager Ivan Villageois explains. “Kind of see from their side of things rather than just always giving our message.”
Having someone to look up to can make a difference for young men, according to the mentoring group. They’re finding and training the best for the job, then using them during programs they teach at Birmingham’s schools.
“The mentors have already started entering the schools so we’ll actually see a lot more people in the last two weeks so even with those people we’re trying to get them trained to become mentors and actually be placed into other schools too,” says Growing Kings Advocacy & Outreach Manager Quamauri Hardy.
While Growing Kings teaches the students specialized curriculum to achieve academic, personal and professional success, they say mentors help by providing a strong supporting role.
“So the program manager is the one that facilitates the actual program. He can’t really control all the kids really in one session so that’s why we have mentors to be able to be placed in the actual sessions,” Hardy says. “I was showing them ‘hey hey you’re missing out on this one,’ that’s basically that’s all we want mentors to be in the actual sessions.”
Growing Kings and its’ mentors meet with students once a week, and they say they’re always recruiting new volunteers.
“The overall diversity different backgrounds that they come from, being able to express that, and let students know that there’s more than what’s in their neighborhood through their own professional backgrounds,” Villageois says.
These programs happen once a week throughout the school year, if you’re interested in becoming a mentor, you can find out how to do so here.
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