Every child needs a caring adult. Or as we say around here, “Someone has to be crazy about the kid.”
Ideally this relationship grows naturally between a child and parent. But not all children have the kind of parental support that leads to becoming a well-adjusted, high-functioning adult.
OCF mentoring programs focus on increasing the number of caring adults involved in the lives of children. Effective mentoring means creating a strong, positive and reliable bond between an adult and a child. Research indicates that when mentoring occurs early in a child’s life, the benefits are the most enduring. Our overall goals include:
- Strengthening the quality of current mentoring programs. Areas in which we concentrate our efforts include staff development and compensation, connections and partnerships, and volunteer match capacity, support and evaluation.
- Improving mentoring programs at transitional periods in children’s lives.
- Building Oregon’s mentoring infrastructure.
- Supporting special populations that greatly benefit from mentoring. These include foster children, adolescent boys and girls, and ethnic minorities.
Mentoring activities occur under a variety of programs, including through the Community Grants program, special grants, and in groups involving research, advocacy and mentoring.