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Challenge recruits youth mentors
By Josie Klemaier
jklemaie@mscd.edu

Organizations throughout Denver are being asked to take the Metro Mentor Challenge, an effort to recruit mentors for middle school and high school youth.

The endeavor seeks to lower dropout rates among Denver students and to contribute to Mayor John Hickenlooper’s plan to end homelessness in Denver.

Among the 15 participating organizations, collectively known as the Youth Mentoring Collaborative, are the Youth Empowerment Support Services Institute, Big Brother Big Sister, Colorado Youth At Risk and Goodwill Industries.

The challenge is for the organizations to recruit 1,000 volunteer mentors by Oct. 16.

The YMC requires mentors to be at least 18 years old, which is why the YESS Institute hopes to recruit college-aged mentors from Auraria institutions.

“Carlo Kriekels, the cofounder of the YESS Institute, truly believes that the ones we learn the most from and/or influence our lives the most are our peers,” said Alex Russel, program manager for the YESS Institute.

According to the Daniels Fund website, the local Denver high school dropout rate is 37 percent, and 42 percent of Denver’s homeless population is 18 years old or younger.

“Through mentoring and providing each child with a positive role model, we hope to end the vicious cycle of homelessness by reaching the youth before it’s too late,” the website says.

The YMC will reach out to about 300 students from Denver Public Schools who are either in homeless situations or qualify for the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program.

Many homeless families in Denver reside along the East Colfax corridor, an avenue of pawnshops, bars, auto repair shops and motels. The corridor is also a notorious area for drug dealing and violence, according to the Colfax Community Network website. A majority of the 48 motels along Colfax Avenue are chiefly residential, renting out often dilapidated one-bedrooms with kitchenettes for an average of $180-$295 a week.

“It is a generational cycle they cannot get out of,” Russel said about children from homeless families. “In the rules of their society, education is not the greatest emphasis,” she said. “It does not fill their immediate needs.”

Russel believes peer mentoring exposes these children to a positive outlook on education and life.

“Those who are privileged are in a cycle of success,” Russel said.

The YMC program hopes to spread this cycle of success to students who are at risk of dropping out of high school.

Volunteers who participate in the Metro Mentor Challenge through the YESS Institute will mentor at least an hour and a half per week after school, doing anything from tutoring and activities to just talking about the day’s events.

“A mentor is basically a friend,” Russel said.

The YESS Institute will be at Auraria’s Fall Fest on Sept. 13 and 14 to spread the word about the Metro Mentor Challenge. For more information about the YESS Institute, contact Alex Russel at 303-951-3012, or visit http://www.metrovolunteer.org to be matched with an organization.