By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Everyone's had a mentor.
Maybe it was a neighbor or a teacher. Or maybe it was a match made through a mentoring organization.
"The bottom line is mentors are needed for all ages," said Doris Higgins, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Southwest Michigan. "If kids think there's hope and they know someone cares about them … they are more likely to succeed."
January is National Mentoring Month. And the call for more mentors statewide has come from Gov. Jennifer Granholm and first gentleman Daniel Mulhern, who announced Thursday that January is also Michigan Mentoring Month.
"We have many men here in Michigan who are strong leaders and positive role models," Mulhern stated in the release. "We want these men to know how much they are needed and how simple it can be to make a huge difference in the life of a child in their community."
The majority of the 4,000 children in Michigan waiting for mentors are boys, according to a study by Kahle Research Solutions cited by Mulhern. The same data also showed that while an estimated 35,000 children are being mentored in the state, only 35 percent of the mentors are men.
Multiple mentoring opportunities exist in Berrien County, Higgins said, and those interested in giving their time can be matched with a mentoring organization through the Volunteer Center. A new program getting ready to start, called Mentoring Children of Promise, or COPS, matches mentors with children whose parents are incarcerated.
COPS is a joint partnership among the Volunteer Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien and Cass, the Berrien County Intermediate School District, the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, Michigan State University Extension 4-H Mentoring, and Steve Campbell of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department. The program aims to send boys and girls ages 6 to 12 with incarcerated parents to the top of the mentor list.
Finding a mentor for any child is a wonderful thing, Higgins said, but matching a child who has an incarcerated parent with an adult mentor is even greater. COPS is in the early stages and is currently using a $5,000 grant from United Way of Greater Niles to study how to approach implementing the pilot program and determine, "what are the boundaries going to be in a program like this?" Higgins said.
"It's educating the public that there's a program available," added Sue Armstrong, interim executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien and Cass.
According to Higgins' information, studies show that an estimated 70 percent of children with an incarcerated parent will also become part in the criminal justice system. In Berrien County alone, nearly 300 residents are sentenced to prison each year and another 505 residents – 50 in Niles – are on active parole, she added.
Anyone considering becoming a mentor should be prepared for a one-year commitment, Higgins said, adding that with COPS the mentors and children stay matched for at least one school year, even when the parent is released or re-incarcerated. The volunteer and child will meet for lunch once a week in a safe, supervised, school environment through the Big Brothers Big Sister Lunch Buddies program.
Dave Van Strien, president of Greater Niles Community Federal Credit Union, has been a Lunch Buddy for four years. He first joined the program when Armstrong spoke during a United Way of Niles presentation. Plus, two other Community Federal Credit Union employees, Denise Leich and Janet Fedeli, are also Lunch Buddies.
Van Strien said mentoring a young person is fairly easy, and mostly requires finding the time to do it one hour a week and then picking up lunch. Van Strien has also taken his mentoring a step further and, after two years with the same child, a background check and a home visit by Big Brothers Big Sisters, has been able to take his Lunch Buddy, a sixth grader in Niles, skiing and golfing.
"He really enjoys just having someone coming to have lunch with him," Van Strien said.
Van Strien said he asked his Lunch Buddy which day he preferred his mentor to visit.
"Fridays. Because then I have something to look forward to all week," Van Strien said his Lunch Buddy replied.
Armstrong said many adults may be scared off by the thought of volunteering as a mentor because they believe the time commitment would be too much. But, that's not the case, she said, and pointed to the Lunch Buddy and COPS programs that require volunteering one lunch each week.
"Adults, in considering mentoring, think it's going to be a huge struggle … and it's not," said Armstrong, who first became a mentor in 1975. "That's why I like the question, 'Who mentored you?'"
"National Mentoring Month is not just about getting new members, but also about recognizing those that already mentor," Higgins added.
Anyone interested in becoming a mentor can contact the Volunteer Center at (269) 683-5464, or Big Brothers Big Sisters at (269) 684-1100.