Young People of Integrity Lunch Buddy program is designed to help reach students who are at risk and meet the criteria of a potential dropout. Mentoring programs like this have been statistically known to improve self-esteem, promote success in the classroom, build accountability, and improve decision-making, while decreasing the dropout rate, absenteeism, office referrals, and suspensions.
Mentoring programs have been vital to dropout and gang prevention programs all over the United States. Statistics show that the main reason most youth dropout of school is that they thought no one cared, and we intend to address just that with this program. Mentoring is intended to build positive, secure relationships with youth who may not have a positive role model in their lives.
Young People of Integrity is an innovative mentoring program designed to create healthy attitudes and behavior in young men and women, as well as provide skills, resources, and positive experiences that will help them become successful, productive citizens. We have built partnerships with Catawba County Social Services, Champions of Education, Hickory Public Schools, Newton-Conover Schools, and Catawba County Schools to pilot our 2011-2012 Lunch Buddy Program this up-coming school year. Our program has been proven to be a success at Grandview Middle for the last three years as part of the Rising Stars Program, but, as we expand the program this year, more mentors are needed.
We are asking for volunteers for 30 minutes of their time per week to go into the schools and eat lunch with the student as they build a relationship with the youth. Mentor training will be provided so that our mentors will be equipped to instill in the youth the core values of respect, accountability, character, self-esteem, and integrity.
We hope you will help us recruit the volunteers needed to change the cycle of violence and failure in our schools through the Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program.
Check out this page and audio cast on our mentoring program brought to you by the MESH