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More than 4.5 million children will now have a mentor while growing up, up from 300,000 in the 1990s, according to MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership.
Now, the state of Ohio is getting into the mix.
Ten million dollars of state grant money is up for grabs under the Ohio Department of Education’s “ Community Connectors,” a mentoring initiative first mentioned in Gov. John Kasich’s State of the State addressearlier this year.
The program aims to serve students in grades five through 12 in school districts with low graduation rates and a high amount of students living in poverty.
While ODE officials don't offer up a concrete example of what a successful Community Connectors program will eventually look like, senior department policy analyst Buddy Harris said it’s unique to call on non-profit organizations, faith groups, businesses, and school districts to collaborate together in creating ways for more students to connect with role models.
“We see examples of what this might look like in bits and pieces all over the place,” Harris said. “But I think that what makes this program unique is we’re really fascinated in seeing what happens when we bring those together.”
Grant applications will be accepted until February 2015. Non-profit or faith-based organizations must be the lead applicants, aided by collaborations with both businesses and school districts.
Thanks to state lottery profits, groups will be eligible to win up to $500,000. For every dollar spent by the mentoring collaborations, the state will match it with three dollars. Money will be awarded over three years, with the state’s contributions lessening over time.
But there still may be lingering questions on the overall impact of mentoring. While a 2011 report from the Association for Psychological Science calls the benefits of similar programs as seemingly “common sense,” researchers also said students' improvements may only be incremental, adding it’s not clear if positive effects are long-lasting.
*NOTE: the figures in the first sentence have been corrected to say "more than 4.5 million children have a mentor..." In an earlier version of the story, we incorrectly mentioned there's more than 4.5 million formal mentoring programs. StateImpact apologies for the error.