MERCY HOME CELEBRATES NATIONAL MENTORING MONTH, CALLS OUT TO VOLUNTEER MENTORS
In celebration of National Mentoring Month, Mercy Home for Boys & Girls is calling on adults who want to make a difference in a child’s life to become volunteer mentors in its Friends First program. If you have the time to give, you have what it takes to change a child’s life.
Mercy Home’s Friends First program is Chicago’s only one-on-one, weekend youth mentoring program. It matches at-risk young people, ages 9-17, with reliable adult volunteers who act as friends and role models. Mentors and mentees participate in fun activities throughout Chicago like museums, public events, parks, ballgames, and more. Further they receive training and support from Friends First’s expert staff.
Young people perform better in all areas of their lives when they have a supportive relationship with a caring adult. For at-risk youth, volunteer mentors can be an especially positive influence that helps them make good decisions, believe in their own strengths, and excel in school.
“If more of us gave just a little time to children like ours, we could help them imagine and then create lifetimes of achievement,” said Fr. Scott Donahue, President and CEO of Mercy Home. “We could help them turn their backs on gangs, guns and drugs. And, we could help them see the potential that waits within each of them,” Donahue said.
For more information about referring a child or becoming a mentor, call Mercy Home at 312.738.7552.
