Description
FLYERS (Forming Lasting Youth Enrichment Relationships and Support) is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and administered by the Elmira City School District in partnership with Family Services of Chemung County.
FLYERS matches community volunteers with children at four Elmira schools for one-on-one mentoring opportunities. It reaches students in grades 4 through 8 at Diven and Riverside Elementary Schools and Broadway and Ernie Davis Middle Schools.
The mission of the FLYERS Mentoring Program is the development of supportive, ongoing one-to-one relationships to facilitate optimal academic, emotional and social growth for Elmira youth who are at risk.
Students are referred to the program by special teams of administrators, teachers and counselors at their schools. They are students determined to be of greater risk for academic failure and/or anti-social behavior, or who could benefit from an additional compassionate adult in their lives. The volunteer mentors are caring adults from the community who can make a one-year commitment to engage with a student. Each volunteer is carefully screened to increase the likelihood of a good match with their mentee. Volunteers must complete an application process and pass a security screening before they can be matched with a student.
Mentors are asked to commit to meeting with mentees for an hour a week, each week, for a year. The program helps arrange for the meetings and is as flexible as possible to work with mentors' and mentees' schedules. Special programs will be arranged to keep mentors and mentees in touch over the summer break.
Mentors participate in an orientation session before meeting their mentee and will complete six hours of training in the course of a year on topics such as helping young people develop life skills, developing a positive attitude towards school and understanding children's stages of development.
