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Community Connectors grant pairs high school students with area business people for one-on-one leadership mentoring

New Carlisle’s Family and Youth Initiatives was recently awarded a Community Connectors grant from the state governor’s office, which will be used to bring together high school students and local business people for a year-long mentorship program.

FYI’s Executive Director Pat Banaszak said she wrote for the grant in March, and found out on August 14 that they had been selected. She said that over 200 entities in the state applied for the grant, and that 192 were chosen. Because so many organizations were selected to receive the grant, its allocations were altered to encompass them all, yielding FYI a one-year grant of $77,000. Banaszak said the governor plans to ask for another $20 million in next year’s budget to put toward Community Connectors grants.

Banaszak said the program will pair Tecumseh High School students with local business people, with a focus on leadership. She said the program will be very structured, with meetings scheduled once per week surrounding specific topics, adding that if the student is struggling with a particular issue that week, that it will be addressed instead of the scheduled topic. Students and their mentors will be paired based on similar interests. Banaszak said research has shown that one-on-one mentoring is the best method of reaching teens, noting that teens often do not feel comfortable talking to their parents about certain subjects and that this program will provide them with another adult to discuss delicate issues. Banaszak, along with Julie Driscoll and program director Mary Bower will coordinate the Community Connectors grant with the local school district and business professionals.

Currently, 30 professionals from the business community have volunteered to act as mentors, but Banaszak said the goal is to mentor 60 students this year. 15 New Carlisle Rotarians have volunteered, as have ten from New Carlisle’s Hispanic community and five community members. Banaszak said she hopes that the program will foster unity between the Hispanic and Caucasian communities, adding that more and more migrant families are choosing to remain in the area year-round instead of moving back and forth. Banaszak said they recently hired Lordes Trostel from Peru to work as a bilingual specialist in the program.

Banaszak encouraged Tecumseh parents to reach out to FYI with any interest or questions about enrolling their student in the community connector program by calling FYI at 937-845-0403 and asking for Mary or Pat. She also noted that mentors from the local business community are still needed. To become a mentor, Banaszak said that applicants must pass a background check and make a commitment to meet with their student once per week for one school year.

Training for mentors is scheduled for October 15, 16, and 29. Banaszak said that students should be paired with their mentors by the first week in November, when the program is scheduled to begin.

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