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YSU program seeks mentors for under-served teens
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
A new program at Youngs-town State University aims to provide college or career direction for teenagers who would benefit from the added guidance, but it needs volunteer mentors to make it happen.
YSU’s Senior Youth Mentorship Program, a partnership among the university’s Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, Safehouse Ministries and Big Brothers-Big Sisters of the Mahoning Valley, launched last September.
The program is the brainchild of Joseph Lyons, director of YSU’s Master of Health and Human Services degree program and an assistant professor of health professions.
“The key is getting mentors — academics and from the unions — to sign up and help us,” said Lyons, who is himself a mentor.
Kurt Welsh, a YSU graduate student who is working with Lyons, said it’s a way to help young people who may not have someone else in their lives to help them navigate the course to college or career.
“Research has shown that one of the most effective supports for young people who are underprivileged or underserved is providing a path for educational or vocational opportunities,” he said.
That increases the likelihood of their staying in school, remaining drug free and not getting into trouble, Welsh said.
Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene, a member of the program’s steering committee, said it takes a special person to be a volunteer mentor.
“It has to be someone who really cares about the future and who cares about society in general,” he said.
One of his reserve deputies is a mentor.
The program also could serve as a recruiting tool for minority officers, a goal with which many law enforcement agencies, including the sheriff’s department, have struggled.
The program earned a $14,000 one-year start-up grant from the Youngstown Foundation.
It has students lined up through Mahoning County Juvenile Court, Safehouse, a Youngstown nonprofit social service agency; Mahoning County Career and Technical Center; and other centers. But only six mentors have volunteered.
Mentors must be older than 50 with some experience in the successful navigation of education and career. They also must pass a thorough background check and commit time to interacting with the young person. The program asks for 12 hours per month although there is some flexibility. Mentors are reimbursed up to $300 each for expenses.
The program will match mentors and mentees with some commonality to ensure a good fit. Participation from the young people is also voluntary.
People at that age level likely have more time and have reached some level of achievement in their careers, Lyons said.
The program’s steering committee includes judges, members of the trade unions, educators and elected officials.
Anyone interested in becoming a mentor should call Lyons at 330-941-3658 or contact him by email at jplyons@ysu.edu.
Lyons and the teenager he mentors share a love of sports and attend sporting events together. They talk about the young man’s plans for the future. But Lyons benefits from the encounters, too.
“It’s a learning experience on behalf of the mentor and the young person,” he said.
The big payoff for the mentor will come when they see their mentee enroll in college or enter a skilled trade, Lyons said.