Bright Ideas - Jan. 25, 2016

A Stanislaus County, Calif. staff mentor meets with a student. Photo courtesy of Stanislaus County

The More the Merrier for Elementary School Mentors

A few years into the Stanislaus County, Calif.’s employee mentoring program, the initial adrenaline and enthusiasm for helping at-risk elementary school students were wearing off and participation was waning.

But then the county shook things up and changed from a one-on-one, traditional approach to a team strategy, making it easier for employees to fit participation into their schedules, and the program has survived another six years from that rocky season and is still going strong. This year, 130 adults are involved in mentoring, bringing the total of adults who have participated to near 500.

“That’s what sealed the deal with us as far as sustainability goes, and I honestly think it was a happy accident,” said Keith Boggs, Stanislaus County’s assistant chief executive officer. “It was starting to get a little hard after the newness of the program wore off and we were asking a big time commitment — almost an hour-and-a-half a week.”

Now, up to three county employees manage scheduling the twice-weekly meetings, with 40 percent of students having three mentors switching off, 30 percent with a pair of mentors and 30 percent maintaining a one-on-one relationship. They meet twice a week for 40 minutes with a student from grades three to five who have low grades, truancy problems or have otherwise been identified as needing help. The program was also opened up to employees from the city of Modesto, members of the local Rotary and Lion’s Club, a bank branch and California State University Stanislaus, among the seven partnering organizations. All mentors must pass an FBI background check.

Stanislaus County has one of the highest dropout rates in the state, at 23.6 percent, so getting an additional role model in at-risk students’ lives is crucial to stemming that tide. Every participating student gets 40 minutes of time with a mentor twice a week.

“That third-through-fifth-grade window is great, because you can really reach the kids and have their attention,” Boggs said. “It’s before hormones, peer pressure, distractions from middle school and lockers, all that stuff gets in the way. You can develop a relationship.”

When more than one adult mentors a child, they keep a journal to clue their partner in to how their student is doing and provide some details and continuity. Before they meet with the child in the library, mentors can catch themselves up.

“If you come in on Friday and check the journal and see that the last entry on Tuesday, Rebecca was upset because she couldn’t find her cat, you can start off where your partner left off, talking about little Scruffles,” Boggs said.

“Then you write on Friday, ‘They found Scruffles; everything is fine. Rebecca is excited about going to a ball game this weekend.’”

Six schools participate in the program, and Boggs estimates the aggregate time mentors have spent with students in the program’s 17 years to be close to 25,000, with many coming since the participation boom in 2010.

Another benefit of the team-based approach has been bonding among the mentors.

“Our teams of three transcend their departments,” Boggs said. You might have an elected official and a middle manager and an accounting clerk, so they end up getting to know each other, where sometimes they might have never crossed paths. They might not even work in the same building.”

The program runs on a $1,500 annual budget, much of which goes to an annual dinner to both recognize mentors and attempt to engage parents of participating students.

Bright Ideas features noteworthy and award-winning programs