By Shelley Widhalm
The Surveyor

Grace Place expects to need at least 15 church and community members to mentor elementary school students during the 2023-24 school year.

Currently, 38 mentors are volunteering every week to work with students at Berthoud and Ivy Stockwell elementary schools to offer the students encouragement and support.

“This is a mentoring relationship that really is a friendship,” said Kim Neeper, Kids Hope director and children’s pastor at Grace Place, 375 Meadowlark Drive. “We’re doing anything we can to step in and support a child, so they can become well-rounded individuals.”
The mentoring is done through Kids Hope USA, a national, faith-based mentoring program that partners with Christian churches, which in turn partner with neighborhood schools to provide one-on-one mentors one hour a week. The program has been at Berthoud since 2014 and Ivy Stockwell since 2018 and has helped 196 students since its start.

Mentors go through an application and screening process with Thompson School District and watch nearly two hours’ worth of Kids Hope training videos. The training covers mentorship expectations, understanding today’s students, the four keys to success and what makes for a healthy relationship.

The idea is for mentors to fill the relational void as a reliable, caring adult able to offer the child a healthy, stable and committed relationship.

“Initially in the beginning, it takes time to develop trust in a relationship, so the child knows ‘this is someone safe who I can talk to,’ empowering (the mentor) to step into the relationship and be whatever the child needs it to be,” Neeper said.

The students receiving the mentoring are referred by their teachers, counselors and school staff and typically are at-risk. Their parents are asked to sign a permission waiver for them to be able to participate in the program.

During each mentoring session, the mentors might dedicate 10 minutes to academics to support student needs in reading, writing, mathematics or the other subjects. They spend the rest of the time working on what the child needs, such as relationship, communication and emotional regulation skills and behavioral challenges.

“It may look different mentor to mentor based on the needs of the child,” Neeper said. “There are so many, many things that come down to the individual and what that individual needs the most.”
A multitude of statistics show that mentorships can change the trajectory of a child’s life into something positive, Neeper said. Attendance rates and academic performance go up, and social-emotional behaviors improve, she said.

“They step in … so they don’t fall through the gaps and aren’t lagging,” Neeper said.

Neeper currently needs three mentors for children in the process of being referred into the program and expects 12 more will be needed for the rest of the school year. Referral numbers typically increase after parent-teacher conferences in the fall and spring and at the beginning of the spring semester, she said.

Ideally, the mentors remain with the students through their entire elementary school years, Neeper said.

“What I love most about the program is the community-building and the relationships we, as a local church, get to have with our public schools,” Neeper said. “What has come out of it is incredible connections. … We support them and come alongside any way we can to provide support not just for the students but the staff as well.”
Kids Hope adheres to separation of church and state, and the church partners cover all program costs.

To volunteer for Kids Hope at Grace Place, visit graceplace.org/events.