Mentors, Inc @KidPower

Mission Statement

There are too many students living in Washington DC who are not getting the support or guidance needed to graduate from high school, and/or prepared to be successful and productive citizens. Many are faced with under-resourced schools, dangerous neighborhood, and little to no history of College Attendance in their families. The fact remains that only half of our children are graduating from D.C. Public High Schools. Those who drop out of school are much more likely to face the epidemics of Unemployment, Poverty, high Public Assistance use, and Prison. The social, emotional and economic toll resulting from D.C. Students having not achieved a high school education, has enormous impacts on both individual and family productivity; a toll which ultimately impacts all citizens. Mentors, Inc. works to end the dropout cycle.

Our program matches teenagers one-on-one with a mentor for at least one year and supports those relationships, to achieve the research-based benefits of matching. 'Mentored Students are less likely to begin using illegal drugs, less likely to use alcohol, skip class, or skip school (more confident of their scholastic performance). Mentored Students are less likely to engage in altercations and more likely to have better relationships with members of their families (Making a Difference: An Impact Study of Big Brothers Big Sisters, Public/Private Ventures, 1995). To ensure that our efforts yield the best results for our students, we utilize research-based 'Best Practices ' of MENTOR, a National Mentoring Partnership. Using 'Best Practices' places our program in the position to yield the best results with an implied emphasis on positive impact for our teens and their futures.