Students, read below for some incredible mentorship and other volunteer activities. This is an amazing way to get involved in and contribute to the City.
Here are a few different opportunities for Christian professionals and students who want to make a difference in the life of a child or young person. Kids With a Promise (KWAP) can always use volunteers who are willing to tutor students in their schools or homes (primarily outer boroughs). We would be happy to get you more information about tutoring if you are interested. For continuity we ask for a minimum commitment of 6 weeks for tutors.
Our greatest volunteer opportunity is for mentors. We have a few different mentoring programs, so please let us know what interests you most.
• As a mentor in the Leadership Academy you would work with 2-3 middle school students two Saturday mornings a month at our Midtown location and meet with the other mentors a third Saturday for mentor support and planning. We seek to develop leadership skills and cultivate productive personal habits among our young people in large group sessions. We have a workshop or team building session where we will present some material to the large group and then break out into the smaller mentor groups to discuss or do an application activity together. Outside of the large group sessions, you would keep in touch with your protégés at least once a week by phone, text or e-mail. You would also need to participate in the winter weekend retreat at our camp in Pennsylvania. We understand that mentors will occasionally have to miss a large-group session, but if your schedule conflicts with our scheduled sessions more than one or two times during the year, you might want to consider one of our more open-ended opportunities.
• Beginning in their third year of the Leadership Academy young people meet independently with their mentors. If you were to mentor with this group, you would be working with 1 or 2 high school students and making your own arrangements to get together with them twice a month. You would focus on goal setting and exploring post-high school plans. You would also join us for a Saturday morning of mentor support and planning, and you would participate in our winter weekend retreat.
• Mentors for our Kids With A Promise Young Scholars work one-on-one with a child between 8 to 12 years old. Young Scholars are children from low socio-economic backgrounds whose families have demonstrated a strong commitment to their success. In addition to awarding them scholarships to attend a private Christian school, Kids With a Promise matches each Young Scholar with a Christian mentor. As a mentor in our Young Scholars program you would keep in touch with your protégé every week and get together at a time and location of your choosing at least two times a month. Six Saturdays during the year all of the Young Scholars and their mentors meet as a large group (that would count as one of your get-togethers for the month). As a mentor you would go on a retreat with your protégé to our camp one weekend in the winter. Keep in mind that most of our Young Scholars live in the outer boroughs or Upper Manhattan and would need you to meet them close to home.
Mentors in all programs commit to the mentoring relationship for a minimum of one academic year.
Kids With A Promise is a Christian faith-based organization, but most of the children who attend our programs do not come to us with a relationship with Jesus. As we help the children to develop in very practical ways, we have a great opportunity to demonstrate through our lives and in our conversations how God’s approach to life is much better than the world’s approach.
During the summer, we encourage our children and young people to attend our beautiful camp in the hills of Pennsylvania, and suspend our Saturday sessions. We do schedule one or two summer outings, and would love to invite you to join us for them, this year, with no commitment, just to meet us and some of our young people. Even if you can’t make it to the outings, we would love to talk to you more about the opportunities we have to serve and to see if we might be able to work together.
If you would like more information, please contact one of our Kids With A Promise staff members.
For Young Scholars: Ruth Mercado, rmercado@bowery.org, 212-684-2800 x151
For the Leadership Academy: Carlos Lagares, clagares@bowery.org, 212-684-2800 x166
Heidi Good, hgood@bowery.org, 212-684-2800 x156
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