Year of mentor activities for 50 vulnerable youth

Grant and I started our journey when he was in first grade.  He’s an only child with parents who have been in and out of jail all of his life.  When we met he was living with his mom on a quiet street with no other kids around.  Without other kids around Grant struggled to learn how to make friends.  At school it was challenging for him to make friends due to significant speech issues.  When his peers struggled to understand him, Grant would get angry and lash out at them.  He would hit them and yell at them.  Then feeling bad, he would say he was sorry.

It was a challenge to help Grant because I struggled to understand what he was saying.  To help with the speech issues, I worked with Grant’s mom to get him involved in speech therapy.  Taking Grant to one of his two weekly speech therapy lessons helped me be consistent with seeing him outside of school.  I was given tools to use to help Grant work on his speech.  During our outings Grant and I would work on school work, play games and practice positive ways for him to tell his peers he was frustrated and/or upset.

This routine continued throughout the first three years of our relationship.  To further help Grant make friends he participated in our summer camps.  This was a great space for him to work on making friends and practice positively expressing himself when he was frustrated.  This was still a challenge for him because of his speech issues.  Through the positive support of myself and other Friends Grant was able to deal with issues that came up with other youth.

While Grant was making improvement with speech and getting along better with his peers at school, there was chaos in the home.  You wouldn’t know it from talking with Grant, who never really expressed any emotions with me, but there was domestic violence happening all around him.  During his 4^th grade year Grant spent many weekends with family while his mom was in jail.  Finally during the summer before 5^th grade Grant was removed from his home and he went to live with his grandma.

This transition has been the best thing that could have happened to him.  I work closely with his grandma to continue our relationship.  We focus on Grant’s educational needs.  When Grant started 5^th grade he was reading at a 3^rd grade level.  He received reading support at school and we came up with strategies to work on his reading at home.  Grant also continued with speech therapy.  Grant has participated in our Performing Arts Camp.  This is a theater camp that has helped Grant be more confident and project his voice for everyone to hear.  By the middle of 6^th grade Grant had made so much progress at speech therapy that he no longer needed sessions outside of school.  When I introduce him to new people they can usually understand him.

Grant just finished his 7^th grade year.  He is much more confident.  He started at a new school where he knew no one.  By winter break Grant had a group of friends he hung out with at lunch.  He took responsibility for completing his homework without being told.  While reading had improved he still struggled with writing.  He accepted the help of a writing tutor.  He learned to add more detail to his paragraphs.  Besides getting all A’s and B’s this school year, Grant’s biggest accomplishment of the year came when he learned he no longer needs reading support.  He no longer needs the support because he is now reading at an 8^th grade level.  With growth like this, I am excited to see how our journey unfolds for the rest of his time in the program.

- A Friend

*Names have been changed to protect our program youth. Photo does not represent youth in story.

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