www.kidshopeusa.org
100 S. Pine St., Suite 280 Zeeland, MI 49464
P: (616) 546-3580 F: (616) 546-3586
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2008
CONTACT: KIDS HOPE USA National Office
Erica Curry, Vice President for National Advancement
Email: ecurry@kidshopeusa.org Phone: 616.546.3580 Fax: 616.546.3586
Louisiana Local
Lisa Frost, KIDS HOPE USA Director & Louisiana Representative
Email: lfrost@kidshopeusa.org Phone: 225.766.8681
Consistent Mentoring Relationships Impact the Lives of Children
KIDS HOPE USA Mentors Cross Economic and Cultural Divide
to Provide Consistent Love and Support for Children in Need
Baton Rouge, Louisiana – When Dina Schroeder’s daughter was attacked with scissors by a boy
in her kindergarten class, she was furious. She and her husband had misgivings before enrolling
their child in public school outside New Orleans, and this proved their fears had been justified.
She stormed into the principal’s office ready to blast her about safety and her child’s rights.
Principal Diane Lonadier, thought to herself “this is a lawsuit waiting to happen,” when she was
astonished to hear the mother’s response. No one was more surprised than Schroeder herself
when she heard the words coming out of her own mouth, “Do you have any programs to help
these children know they are loved and don’t have to act like that?”
Schroeder had been involved with the mentoring program KIDS HOPE USA (KHUSA) before
moving to Kenner, LA. That afternoon she found herself on the phone with the national office in
Michigan to find out how she could bring KIDS HOPE USA to her daughter’s school. She is
now the director of the mentoring program that links the Vineyard Church where her husband is
a pastor with Schneckenburger Elementary School. Every week twelve mentors come to the
school to spend an hour with a dozen children the school has identified as at-risk. The one-onone relationships that have been formed are changing the lives of not only the children, but the
mentors.
This partnership was birthed in Kenner just as hurricane Katrina pulverized the Gulf Coast,
leaving a shredded mass in her deadly wake. The Vineyard Church stepped up, not to provide
the mentors as expected, but to meet more immediate needs, like food they grilled in Holy
Smoke barbecue pits, tables and chairs they donated to the damaged school, and backpacks with
supplies for the children. “KIDS HOPE gave us the chance to begin a relationship with the
school,” says Schroeder. “Otherwise there is no way we would have known what they needed.”
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KIDS HOPE USA is providing a way to harness the good will of church members to reach out to
their neighbors. The award-winning program provides mentors, building one-on-one bridges
between at-risk elementary school kids and caring adults from neighboring congregations.
Screened, trained adult mentors come to the school every week to give undivided attention to one
child they are matched with for at least a year. For a child who may have absent or troubled
parents, a one-on-one mentoring relationship provides powerful stabilization.
“Kids from poverty have difficult issues in their lives,” says Elementary Principal Brian
Carpenter. “Sometimes it’s verbal or physical abuse, drug or alcohol abuse in the home,
homelessness, or the basic needs of clothing, food and shelter.” Children living in unstable
environments have a hard time mastering even the most basic academic material, if their brain is
in what psychologists call ‘fight or flight’ mode. Kids have to feel safe before they can learn.”
A child who can’t read by the third grade is eight times more likely to drop out of school.
“Some children struggle to learn because of emotional and social needs,” says Virgil Gulker,
KIDS HOPE USA Founder. These are prime candidates for the dropout epidemic that is
crippling the chances for success for 1.23 million children every year in America, condemning
them to repeat the cycle of poverty many have come from. The likelihood of healing the
emotional damage and breaking the cycle is much higher if kids can be reached while they are
young, says Gulker, who has mobilized mentors for nearly 7,000 at-risk children in the nation.
Mentors are helping to stabilize them emotionally, which allows them to learn and stay in school.
KIDS HOPE USA has been building relationships across the country for 13 years since its
founding in Michigan. Children from the first classes are now graduating from high school,
beating the odds of nearly half their classmates who dropped out along the way. Research on the
effectiveness of the program is accruing: The Frost Research Center found in its 2007 study that
“98% of the Kids Hope USA children benefited from their relationship with a mentor.” The
Points of Light Foundation cites KHUSA as the “premier paradigm of faith-based mentoring in
this country.”
Now operating in 29 states, KIDS HOPE has linked 429 elementary schools to churches in their
neighborhood to provide ongoing teams of mentors. In schools across Louisiana and the nation,
mentors meet with the children at the school where the children feel safe and the mentors can
interact with the teachers to find out where extra focus is needed. The hour with the child each
week is divided into segments for personal interaction, academics, creative learning, and fun.
Children who may not have books at home or anyone to read to them receive the undivided
attention of an adult to help them, while at the same time meeting the emotional deficit that
thwarts the child’s capacity to learn.
Linda Joseph has been the director of the KHUSA program at Neely United Methodist Church in
Baton Rouge for the past five years where a majority of the congregation is involved with
KHUSA in some way, many of them as prayer partners to support the 15 mentors going into
Polk Elementary School. In a neighborhood at the gates of Louisiana State University, more than
60 percent of the children are growing up in single parent homes without a father. Many of the
youngsters have behavioral problems, reports Joseph. When she walks the halls of the school the
children call out, “Miss Linda, can I please have a mentor?” “There’s a need in our community
and the church can make a difference,” she says. “We can change lives.”
-more-
Programs like KIDS HOPE USA are linking predominantly middle-class mentors to children and
families living in poverty, often bridging both socio-economic and ethnic divides. As KHUSA
founder Virgil Gulker put it, “For many mentors, this is the only person of a different ethnicity
with whom they have a named relationship.” The churches involved in KIDS HOPE strengthen
their presence in the neighborhood as they weave a mosaic of outreach to youth and family
ministry into their fabric. One church reported that spin-off ministries connected them to 140
families in the neighborhood.
Mentors from Joseph’s church come from diverse backgrounds, yet they are bound by a common
purpose to reach out to neighborhood children living in poverty. The mentors are often shocked
at what they see as they get closer to the families. They tell Joseph, “I have been living in a box.
I had heard of poverty but didn’t know it was there. It’s worse than I thought.” The exposure
has had an impact on the church, according to Joseph. “We are trying desperately to expand the
program with more mentors. We see the need. Our kids are on the street and we have got to do
something for them.” Baton Rouge now has three KHUSA partnerships. University United
Methodist Church fields a team of 66 KHUSA mentors, one of the largest in the country.
Sometimes the relationship extends beyond the partnering school into another one for the sake of
the child. A fourth grade girl who began with KIDS HOPE USA was withdrawn and
unresponsive. If anyone ever showed her affection, her response indicated clearly not to ever try
again. Despite her demeanor, when the girl moved to a different school district, her mentor asked
the principal for permission to continue the mentoring relationship. The principal agreed to let
the mentor come to the school and called the girl into her office. KHUSA Director Dina
Schroeder went with the mentor to offer her support. “This girl who had never smiled or hugged
before walked into the office and lit up like a 100-watt bulb,” recalls Schroeder. As the mentor
stood up tentatively the girl rushed to embrace her. “In that one moment I knew that God had
reached this girl’s soul. Her heart had been touched by love and she would always, always
remember that moment and know that someone cared enough to come for her.”
If you would like to find out more about KIDS HOPE USA and how you can get involved, visit
www.kidshopeusa.org online or contact Lisa Frost at lfrost@kidshopeusa.org.
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Written by Barbara J. Elliott, President of the Center for Renewal in Houston, TX. belliott@centerforrenewal.org.