Hope for children

One church, one school, one mentor, one child, one hour. That’s what it takes to make a difference in a child’s life, and that’s the basic structure of Kids Hope, a mentoring organization in Jay County.  
Kids Hope began in 2006 after a group of people dedicated to children decided Jay County needed a new way to help young people.
Barbara Downing, mentor and former Jay Schools superintendent, said the organization’s founders wanted to show children that adults care.
“A group of people, I call them the movers and shakers of Jay County, always had it in their hearts and minds to do some type of mentoring program for the kids in Jay County, that was the beginning,” she said. “The goal was, how do we help support the kids in our county, and what support do they need.”
Nationally, Kids Hope reaches more than 11,000 students in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Since its inception, Kids Hope has created between 60 and 90 mentor/child relationships each year in every Jay County elementary school.
Nine churches provide mentors for the seven elementary schools. Two schools have two churches in order to provide more mentors.
“Every church has a director, and they work directly with the principals and teachers and together they select the kids they think are most in need (of a mentor),” said Gary Maitlen, executive director of Jay County Mentoring, the board that oversees Kids Hope.
Over the last seven years, Kids Hope has added more churches, allowing more relationships to form.
Parents and guardians have always been supportive of the program, a detail that surprised Maitlen.
“Most of the parents I’ve talked to said it was such a blessing because their kids were inspired and did better in school,” he said.
But Maitlen added that he’s not sure people outside of the organization know much about it or why it’s important.
“The people that are involved are obviously very passionate, and the churches that are involved are very aware that it’s going on — it’s a mission for the churches,” he said. “I’ll bet a lot of people that aren’t involved either in the church or the school probably don’t realize that there’s a mentoring program in town.”
One accomplishment Downing is proud of is the program’s sustainability.
“It’s a huge program, and it’s been sustained since (the beginning),” she said. “Programs come and go, and it’s been sustained by participating churches and we keep adding new churches.”
Mentors provide a constant friendly face for the children who may need it most. Some even follow their mentee if they move to a new school in the county.
“For the most part, I think when you start with a child, you continue as long as they’re in the elementary,” Downing said. “Sometimes children even move, if that happens, to another school in the county and the mentor travels.
“So, many times that’s the only friendly face in the school.”
Mentors are there to provide whatever support the child may need. They spend the hour helping students with academics, playing games, asking them about their day or week and giving them support.
Maitlen said statistics show students involved in the program do better academically than students who are not involved.
“Other things are harder to measure, like social skills, confidence, assertiveness,” he said, “but they’ve reported that the kids are much more confident, outgoing and have better social skills.”
Angelyn VanCise is the director of Kids Hope mentors at Bryant Wesleyan Church. She’s also a mentor.
“I believe whole heartedly in the program. I love being a mentor,” VanCise said. “You can’t go wrong, I think, investing in kids one-on-one.”
Her mentors work with students at Bloomfield Elementary, where administrators and teachers have fully supported the program.
“Mr. (Ben) Dues and the teachers see the benefit of it as well,” she said. “All around it’s been a good program.”
And even after children have aged out of the program, mentors are encouraged to stay in contact.
“These relationships never go away even when these kids move on,” Maitlen said.
For instance, he still keeps in contact with one of his first students.
“I’ll be honest, he has a work ethic now,” said Maitlen. “I told him a couple years ago, if you want to get ahead all you’ve got to do is be honest and work hard and be dependable. You can do anything.”
Now that student is in high school and has a baby, but he also has a job.
“I think it’s been a good thing for him,” Maitlen said. “He’s going to be all right.”
Another mentor and student relationship ran so deep, the student wanted to speak about her mentor, who passed away, at the annual Kids Hope banquet.
“It was so touching,” Downing said. “She gave a memorial tribute to her mentor.
“It’s a special bond, it’s a blessing to everyone who mentors. I hear that over and over. If we had enough people in Jay County and enough resources to have an adult mentor for every child, that would be the perfect situation.”
The impact of Kids Hope may even extend past the child and mentor into the community.
Some churches work with their assigned schools in other ways, providing school supplies and other items students may need.
Downing said she’s thankful to have been a part of the program and to see it still going strong.
“I never take that for granted as a mentor or former school superintendent,” she said. “Having gone through many of the months looking for a mentoring program, and there were times I thought, I don’t think this is going to work.
“It was a struggle to find the right match, so I’m very grateful and thankful. I feel blessed that Jay Schools and the churches have sustained the mentoring program.”

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