Friends of the Children supports Phoenix kids with long-term mentorship
By Mira Preston
Friends of the Children is a national nonprofit dedicated to connecting at-risk youth with long-term mentorship, and its Phoenix chapter — opened in 2022 — has already made a huge impact on the lives of 70 children in the Roosevelt School District in South Phoenix.
Founded in 1993 by entrepreneur Duncan Campbell, Friends of the Children employs a unique model that utilizes long-term mentorship to guide children through early school years, adolescence, and high school graduation. The model pairs children as young as four years old with professional, paid mentors — known by the organization as Friends — who help youth through their school years as they navigate various challenges and strive to complete their education, with a particular focus on children who are at risk of entering the foster care system.
Mentors have diverse backgrounds, from teachers to athletes, but they all have a Bachelor’s degree, according to Cassie Patris-Browne, Executive Director of Friends of the Children Phoenix, and they’re all drawn to Friends of the Children because of the deep impact the program has on the children they mentor.
“Duncan Campbell understood from his own experiences that it takes really incredible relationships in your life, and someone believing in you and seeing a different possibility for you, for you to break out of that cycle that you’re in,” said Nicole Szymkowski, Director of Development and Strategic Relations.
The Roosevelt School District, which serves over 7,000 children, has a high percentage of youth facing poverty, and strengthening academic and personal goals is a priority of both the program and the district. According to current data from Education Forward Arizona’s Progress Meter, which provides a snapshot of academic progress in different areas, approximately 12% of eighth graders in the Roosevelt School District meet math proficiency benchmarks and 18% of third graders meet reading proficiency benchmarks.
These data points highlight areas where Friends of the Children, in collaboration with the Roosevelt School District, have potential to make the most educational gains among students. 71% of children currently enrolled in Phoenix’s Friends of the Children program are reading at or almost at grade level, according to data tracked by the organization.
Friends of the Children partners with schools across the district to pair children up with mentors who stay in their lives for 12 or more years. Each youth has an individualized roadmap, and mentors stay flexible depending on the child’s needs at the moment. Mentors spend time with youth both in and out of the classroom, spending one-on-one time with them to customize each experience to what the child is facing at the time. Sometimes that includes helping youth navigate tough issues like drugs or violence; sometimes it’s taking them for fun activities, like fly fishing or drinking smoothies.
“The mentors all bring their own charms, interests, personalities, and that definitely rubs off on the kids,” said Patris-Browne.
Friends of the Children also works extensively with the child’s family and support system, including teachers, principals, counselors, family members, and guardians, in what they call a “Two-Generation” or whole family approach.
“[The youth] is at the center of the circle, and we’re doing whatever we need around the circle of the youth to be able to support them,” Szymkowski said. “So if they don’t have food on the table, we’re connecting them with the food bank. If their parent doesn’t know how to create stability and structure in their family that helps them get to school on time, we’re sitting down and figuring out how to create that structure in the home.”
Latoya Albert gained guardianship of her four nieces and nephews after her sister died 5 years ago. Her two youngest, twins, entered the program when they were in kindergarten after the program first started; now 11 years old, Albert says that the program has been “tremendously helpful” to them, emphasizing the benefits of having a consistent presence in the children’s lives.
“It makes them feel wanted,” Albert said.
“They have someone to talk to if they can’t talk to me, if they got some kind of problem,” she continued. “They can talk to them and then they can come address it with me. Their own person, and they grow with them. You can see each year, they grow different to be a better person.”
The twins’ mentors have been in their lives since they entered the program, and their influence has been helpful not only for their academic progress in reading and math, but also in terms of broadening their horizons, boosting their self esteem, and exposing them to new, fun activities. Albert said that the twins’ mentors take them on different outings or inside activities in the clubhouse such as tie-dyeing shirts, playing basketball, and taking them to sporting events. Beyond having fun and providing educational support, the mentors check in with Albert to tag-team behavioral issues.
Albert recounted a time when her nephew had a challenging encounter at school and his mentor made time for him the next day. “Just came, talked to him for an hour or two,” Albert said.
While the Phoenix chapter is still one of the newest Friends of the Children chapters, the model has proven successful in other states it’s been implemented in. Of children who enrolled in the Friends of the Children program across the nation, 83% earned a high school diploma or GED, 93% remained free from involvement with the juvenile justice system, and 98% waited until after their teen years to become parents. Contrasted with children at risk of entering the foster care system who don’t enter a program like Friends of the Children, 55% will graduate high school, 74% will avoid the juvenile justice system, and 74% will become early parents, according to Friends of the Children.
While children of the Phoenix branch are still too young to see these types of benefits, it’s already had a large effect on the children and families served, according to Patris-Browne.
“It takes a village,” Albert said. “And this is my village. Because everybody holds everybody accountable. From the directors to the mentors to the other children, when they see something, they hold everyone accountable. That’s what I like about this program and their mission. I love it, I wouldn’t change it.”
To learn more about Friends of the Children, visit friendsphoenix.org.
Image courtesy of Friends of the Children - Phoenix.
