Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD) is the third largest in the state ofWisconsin.  Because of historically lower graduation rates for minority students, KUSD has been collaborating with community organizations to expand mentoring services for at-risk children.

 In 2004, KUSD formed the Collaborative Student Mentoring Program, the first community-wide mentoring coalition. RSVPwas one of the first organizations to join.  The mentor collaborative offered excellent support services to participating organizations such as conducting criminal background checks, creating photo ID’s, and offering semi-annual mentor workshops. 

RSVPrecruited five volunteer mentors that first year.   Four years later we had only increased our mentors to nine.  The community need remained great with children kept on waiting lists for months.  We struggled but persevered to promote the program and recruit more mentors.

Finally, in 2009, came the good news:  we managed to double our number of mentors to 18.  We soon discovered the bad news:  it was challenging to manage 18 mentors and track their progress throughout the school year.  

When the opportunity for a CNCS grant augmentation arose in 2009, we entered the national competition and were successful.  The grant enabled us to expand our mentor program and to hire a part-time mentor coordinator.  

In October 2010, our program was certified by Mentor Kenosha Racine, a community-wide effort funded through Americorps and located at theUniversityofWisconsin-Parkside’s Center for Community Partnerships.  Mentor Kenosha Racine supports and strengthens mentoring programs by providing a variety of technical assistance activities including mentor training, raising community awareness of the need for mentors, and a certification process to identify programs which meet standards for delivering quality mentoring services.  Mentor Kenosha Racine said we had “a model program that we will be able to hold up as an example as we work to support other developing mentoring programs in the region.”

          Our mentor count is now 39 and growing.  Our new coordinator, Kathy Walter, has expanded the program to serve K- 8 students.  Kathy created a better system for tracking mentor placement and hours served; developed new promotional, orientation and training materials; added bi-monthly opportunities for mentors to get together and reflect upon their service and trade mentoring tips; placed volunteers as mentor recruiters at the Kenosha Public Library and the YMCA and placed a volunteer assistant at Mentor Kenosha Racine. 

          43 students received 521 hours of mentoring in 2010.  Teachers were surveyed at the end of the 2010 school year.  Survey results showed that 100% of mentees showed improvement in academic, social, life skills, or behavioral areas, with 61% showing some improvement and 39% showing lots of improvement. 

          As we approach the end the current school year, we are addressing the issue of mentors wanting to see their mentees over the summer by hosting a session on how to transition from school to community based mentoring featuring guest speakers from Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club, and Mentor Kenosha Racine.  Plans are also underway for the Collaborative Student Mentoring Program’s annual end-of-school-year mentor/mentee picnic.