VOICE Mentor Program: volunteers of Issaquah changing education
July 28th, 2009 | By: Susan Gierke
“What a difference an hour can make in the life of a child.”
VOICE Mentors in Issaquah Schools have learned that much can be accomplished in an hour when working with a struggling student. The VOICE Mentor Program (Volunteers of Issaquah Changing Education) is a highly successful in-school mentor program funded by the Issaquah Schools Foundation. VOICE matches community volunteers with students identified by teachers and counselors as needing extra support in school.
In 2003, the Issaquah Schools Foundation conducted a Needs Assessment Survey. Findings revealed that many students needed additional tutoring or mentorship to be more successful in school. Responding to the assessment results, the Foundation launched the VOICE Mentor Program at Issaquah Valley Elementary School and Issaquah Middle School the following year. Community members were recruited, trained and carefully matched with students for tutoring and mentorship, and VOICE completed its first school year with 25 community volunteer mentors. Now in ten elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools, VOICE has over 130 mentors working with over 160 students. The work of the mentors has been so highly valued by the schools that the need for mentors continues to increase. VOICE hopes to partner with Newcastle Elementary next fall.
Mentors work an hour a week with their student, providing academic guidance, social and emotional support, and positive examples to students. “Working with a student like this is fantastic and very rewarding,” said Jeff Richards, mentor to a sixth grade boy at Pine Lake Middle School. “It can make a big difference in a student’s life when someone is truly interested in them and their success.” Increased confidence and better grades are two remarkable results of the VOICE Mentor program.
“This is a great community program for bringing together people who want to be useful and helpful, and students who could use some personal attention,” said Marge Wang, a mentor at Issaquah Middle School.
Continually funded by the Issaquah Schools Foundation and, for the 2008-9 school year, Wells Fargo Bank, VOICE has the support of the Issaquah School District. The VOICE Mentor Program has grown due to the demand by schools for mentors based on the results of committed mentor volunteers dedicated to meeting students’ goals. VOICE Mentors’ work was recognized in 2008 when the program received a Washington State School Administrators Award for Community Leadership and Service to Education and Young People of Washington.
Our need for mentors is great and constant. VOICE mentor Lisa Peterson at Cascade Ridge agrees, “You can make a difference in a child’s life if you can give an hour a week!”
If you have that one hour a week to give to a student, please consider becoming a VOICE Mentor. Please contact me at VOICE@issaquah.wednet.edu or 425.837.7139 for more information about our program and to learn why we say, “What a difference an hour can make in the life of a child.”
