Maine has all the right ingredients to be the best in the nation at connecting young people with mentors, but it offers little support for the programs that make mentoring happen. Mentoring would give Maine’s aging population a chance to help direct young people who are most in need of support.
Especially in the midst of the opiate epidemic, it’s crucial that the state not let its youth flounder. Mentoring can prevent addiction because kids who are connected to someone do better overall.
Kids with mentors attend school more regularly. They trust their parents more and talk more with them. They’re more likely to go to college and use birth control. Some studies show that mentoring reduces drug use. These effects are especially significant for kids who might not be successful otherwise. One study found 55 percent of low-income college students mentored by a coach graduated college, while 19 percent of students without a mentor graduated.
Yet, nationally, one in three young people doesn’t have a mentor.
Maine could be the first state where every single child has a mentor, and there would still be many older Mainers not mentoring. The state has so many older folks, every child could have four mentors. This wouldn’t just help Maine’s youth; it would give the aging population connections and purpose. And the state has a small enough total population that it wouldn’t take too much funding to support every mentoring program.
This funding is crucial. It’s not enough to get every young Mainer a mentor. The standard for mentoring programs is to have a staff member check in with every mentor, mentee and guardian of the mentee monthly.
Mentors also need extensive training, so they know how to handle tricky situations that arise with their mentees. What do they do if their mentee asks what drugs they’ve done? What do they do if they learn their mentee’s boyfriend is abusive?
Every mentoring program needs to have enough staff people to take care of its mentors — and the funding to hire that staff.
Beyond staff time, mentoring programs also need guidance in creating evaluations, seeking funding and establishing an effective training program.
In 2001, the Maine Children’s Cabinet created an organization called the Maine Mentoring Partnership, which supported mentoring programs throughout the state. In 2005, there was a bill to give $250,000 annually to the Maine Mentoring Partnership, which it would then distribute to mentoring programs.
The bill passed but without almost any funding. The $250,000 annually became a one-time $25,000, which went to Jobs for Maine’s Graduates. The Maine Mentoring Partnership no longer exists.
If Maine’s legislators want the young people in this state to thrive, they need to ensure that each one has a support system, including a mentor.
