What
is Friends of the Children?
Friends of the Children is a revolutionary mentoring program
that connects our nation’s most vulnerable children with paid,
professional mentors, whom we call Friends, until their high school graduation
date.
We help high-risk children develop the relationships, goals, and skills
necessary to break the cycles of poverty, abuse, and violence in order
to become contributing members of society. (Top)
Who
are Friends?
Friends are full-time, trained, paid professional mentors who are hired for
their experience and talent for working with high-risk children. They receive
extensive training (both initial and ongoing) and close supervision and support
from staff at Friends of the Children. Their diversity (60% are people
of color, half are women), education, experiences, passion, and talent make
them the heart of our program. (Top)
Who
are the Children?
We select the highest-risk children based on risk factors identified by research
to be most predictive of serious long-term negative outcomes. Each child is
identified based on his or her degree of vulnerability to school failure, gang
and drug involvement, teenage pregnancy, and criminal behavior. Many of these
children have faced poverty, homelessness, neglect, abuse, foster care, drug
and alcohol abuse, parental incarceration, and domestic violence, and as a
result many of them may move and change schools often. Given their high levels
of mobility, these children often fall through the cracks of school or community-based
mentoring programs. Because Friends of the Children intervenes early,
stays with the child long-term, and attends to the child’s total environment,
we are able to address the specific needs of children whose instability renders
them outside the bounds of other mentoring programs. (Top)
How
are Children selected for the program?
The rigorous and thorough selection process at Friends of the Children begins
with an eight-week observation period in which experienced Friends,
as well as community experts and Friends of the Children staff, observe
children at school. (Top)
How
does Friends of the Children work?
Each child is paired with a paid, professional Friend who spends a minimum
of four hours of one-on-one time each week with him or her for the next twelve
years of that child’s life. Friends permeate all areas of children’s
lives: visiting their homes, collaborating with their families, supporting
them at school, and accompanying them in their communities. This model enables
a child to form a trusting, caring, and sustained relationship with an adult
that can truly change his or her life for the better. (Top)
What
do Friends and their children do together?
The activities that Friends and their children do together are unique to
the child’s individual needs, abilities, and interests. Friends engage
in activities with their children that foster social and emotional development,
positive choice making, and school success, and nurture each child’s
passions and talents. These activities take place in the child’s school
and community, and can include working on homework, learning about healthy
food choices, participating in physical activities, listening to music, and
engaging in educational games and other activities that establish a lifelong
love of learning. Throughout all of these activities, Friends and their children
talk, listen, and spend quality time together. (Top)
What
are the goals of Friends of the Children?
We set three clear, measurable long-term goals for each child in our program:
What
are prevention and early intervention?
By intervening early and preventing negative outcomes before they
occur, Friends of the Children is able to effectively address the
specific needs of our nation’s highest-risk children. Friends enter children’s
lives early—by the end of their kindergarten year, when they are still
open to change, and before negative behaviors have been established. The relationships
that children form with their mentors help them to navigate the challenges
and obstacles they will face throughout childhood and adolescence, and to help
them build the confidence, interests, and skills in order to do so. (Top)
Is Friends
of the Children just a mentoring program?
Friends of the Children does more than provide children with
professional mentors. The Friends of the Children Portland Chapter
has designed and implemented an Educational Enrichment program to more
effectively support our children academically. Friends also connect children
and their families to other social services organizations
that can meet their needs. Because Friends of the Children is
a holistic, comprehensive program, we are actively involved in our children’s
physical and mental health and development. A Friend can help a child
buy school supplies or fix broken glasses, attend to illness or teach
essential hygiene skills. (Top)
Isn’t
the program expensive?
Friends of the Children has a relatively high cost per child
because we serve only the most at-risk children whose needs cannot be
adequately met by less comprehensive mentoring programs. The preventative
investment in helping one high-risk child far outweighs the costs that
that child will put on society as an adult. Economists estimate that
preventing one vulnerable child from becoming a high-school dropout,
a career criminal, or a drug abuser saves $1.7 to $2.3 million in costs
to society.* (Top)
How
can I get involved with Friends of the Children?
You can make a meaningful contribution to Friends of the Children in
many ways. Your time, in-kind gifts or services, or monetary and stock donations
will help make a difference in the lives of children. For more information,
please contact National@friendsofthechildren.org. (Top)
*Cohen, Mark. “The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 14.1 (1998): 5-32