Benefits of Mentoring

Mentoring works! Children grow in self confidence, responsibility and academic performance. According to Public/Private Ventures, mentored students are:

1. 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs

2. 27% less likely to begin using alcohol

3. 52% less likely to skip school

4. 33% less likely to hit someone

5. 37% less likely to skip a class

6. 40% more likely to finish high school

7. 64% developed higher levels of confidence

8. 62% more likely to trust their teachers

9. 60% improved relationships with adults

10. 56% improved relationships with peers

A great deal of research exists. Much of it can be found at the P/PV web site.

P/PV's "Making a Difference"
The following are excerpts from the Public/Private Ventures report, "Making a Difference". The full report (71 pages) may be read at "Making a Difference Report" (requires Adobe Reader).

1. "The past decade has seen widespread enthusiasm for mentoring as a way to address the needs and problems of youth-but no firm evidence that mentoring programs produce results. We now have that evidence. In this report, Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) provides scientifically reliable evidence that mentoring programs can positively affect young people."
    
2. "The sample youth were between 10 and 16 years old (with 93% between 10 and 14) when they were found eligible for the BBBS [mentoring] program. Just over 60 percent were boys, and more than half were minority group members (of those, about 70 percent were African American). Almost all lived with one parent (the mother, in most cases), the rest with a guardian or relatives. Many were from low-income households, and a significant number came from households with a prior history of either family violence or substance abuse."
    
3. Conclusions: Our research presents clear and encouraging evidence that caring relationships between adults and youth can be created and supported by programs, and yield a wide range of tangible results. The most notable results are the deterrent effect on initiation of drug and alcohol use, and the overall positive effects on academic performance that the mentoring experience produced."

"I Have a Dream"

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

In 1987, Mercy Street's Bill Farrell founded the second "I Have a Dream" mentoring organization in the nation. In the first year, 1,000 seventh graders were selected from 3 West Dallas and 3 South Dallas elementary schools followed by another 1,000 students in the subsequent year. These were mentored through high school with 60% graduating from high school and 50% of those going onto college. Bill continued with "I Have a Dream" until 1997 thinking he was "retiring".

In late 2002, Bill was alarmed that the program had slowed considerably and thus initiated a new organization, "Vision Kids" under the Mercy Street banner. The results and the lessons learned through success and mistakes in those early years moved Bill to rekindle his passion with the goal of reaching all the 4th to 12th graders in West Dallas. Some of the lessons learned include beginning the mentoring process before middle school; having a tutoring program that complements the schools' work; and having a facility that is adjacent to the served schools.

Today Bill is a full-time Mercy Street director raising mentors and funding while lending his years of experience to the Vision Kids mentoring programs.

Mentoring Goals: In the next two years, we expect to mentor, in one-on-one matches, as follows: