A group of Grand Valley State University students will share
insights about mentoring with practitioners and academics at the 21st
Annual National Youth-at-Risk Conference in Savannah, Georgia from
February 28-March 3. The students are members of the Pals Student
Mentors program at Grand Valley.
The Grand Valley team will share how they were able to develop
the unique student mentoring program with funds from a grant. Pals
faculty adviser Kathleen Bailey, professor of criminal justice, said
she hopes Grand Valley’s program can serve as a model for other
universities looking to establish mentoring organizations.
“The program has developed with the goals of providing mentoring
opportunities for students and caring mentoring relationships for
at-risk youth,” said Bailey. “The program continues to remind me about
the profound importance of relationships and how we, as people, are
the instruments of change.”
In October of 2008, the program known as Powerful Relationships
Overcoming Violent Experiences (P.R.O.V.E.) was funded with a grant
from Project Safe Neighborhoods. This grant provided $29,000 to
develop and expand the Grand Valley program to provide healthy and
positive relationships with at-risk youth to help them resist violence
and gang involvement. This preventative initiative was designed to
enhance mentoring in West Michigan by providing theory-based training,
enhanced supervision, organized activities and an innovative
electronic support and reporting system in the Grand Valley program.
“It is amazing to see how much the program has grown from having
a leadership of four volunteer coordinators to having specialized
executive board positions and the support of two advisers,” said staff
adviser Markus Neuhoff said. “Each week, at our executive board
meetings, the students always find new ways to improve the program.”
For Neuhoff, the program benefits not only the youth who are
mentored, but also the mentor volunteers. “Volunteers are able to
develop their interpersonal skills,” said Neuhoff. “Volunteer
experience reflects positively both in future employment and
post-graduation opportunities.”
To learn more about the Grand Valley Pals Student Mentors
program, visit www.gvsupals.com.
Photo: Pals Student Mentors members putting the finishing touches
on the conference presentation.Top row from left: Todd Workman and
Shorayi Mareya. Bottom row from left: Dr. Kathleen Bailey, Markus
Neuhoff, Tiffany Beaudry
