Through positive and caring one-to-one relationships with adult friends and positive role models, youth will grow and thrive, taking responsibility for their choices, learning from their mistakes and looking forward to a healthy and productive future.
STARS envisions a community as described by Peter L. Benson, founder of Search Institute, Minneapolis, MN, where youth are “grounded in a daily web of support, acknowledgment, affirmation, inclusion and opportunity.” When youth experience supporting one-to-one relationships with caring adults, they are likely to develop successfully, being capable of making informed, responsible decisions as involved citizens of the world.
STARS is a non-profit mentoring program serving youth and families in Freeborn County and the eastern portion of Faribault County.
Young people participating in quality mentoring programs:
–are more likely to do better in school
–have aspirations for college and career
–are more equipped to make responsible decisions
–model good behavior
–more likely to be productive and engaged citizens.
These are all key factors in building stronger communities.
Mentoring Impact:
http://www.mentoring.org/why-mentoring/mentoring-impact/
To learn more about how you can be a mentor or to enroll a child please find out more :
The goals of National Mentoring Month are to:
In 2002, the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership created National Mentoring Month.
Albert Lea was proclaimed as National Mentoring Month in January of 2016. This Proclamation was signed by Mayor Vern Rasmussen at the Albert Lea City Council Meeting in January, 2016.
–Link to the Proclamation Declaring Albert Lea as National Mentoring Month in 2016. (proclamation letter)
To learn more about National Mentoring Month, the national website for mentoring has more information.
–Link to: : www.mentoring.org
Quality mentoring programs have show to be effective combating school violence and discipline problems, substance abuse, incarceration and truancy. Research shows that young people who are at risk for not completing high school but who have a mentor were 55% more likely to be enrolled in college, 81% more likely to participate regularly in sports or extracurricular activities, more than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team and 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.