KidsPeace has received a $7,250 grant to create a mentoring program for youth in foster care in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The grant was received from Community Giving Foundation: Berwick, which awarded it to KidsPeace’s Foster Care and Community Programs office in Bloomsburg, PA.
The office currently offers an Independent Living Program for foster youth that teaches them life skills that are key to their becoming self-sufficient after aging out of foster care. (Among skills taught as a result of the program: applying for and maintaining a job and/or college, money management, nutrition, housing and transportation, and etiquette and relationships.)
KidsPeace said the new grant would allow it to develop an enhancement to the Independent Living programming. Called Cherished Connections Mentoring, the enhanced program will match current youth in foster care with a positive, caring adult in the community. These adults will serve as life skills advocates and provide a “listening” presence, while also introducing the young people to new opportunities, empowering them to make responsible decisions on their future, and acting as companions in pursuing activities of shared interest.
In the enhanced program, mentors from the community will be identified and recruited by KidsPeace staff to work with adolescents on preparing for an eventual departure from foster care. The youth participants will be referred to the program from Columbia County Children & Youth Services.
The program is modeled on a mentoring program operated by Adams County Children & Youth, which is working with KidsPeace on the structure and policies of the Cherished Connections Mentoring program.
The KidsPeace Cherished Connections Mentoring program is expected to be in place by the latter half of 2023. Individuals interested in learning more about becoming a mentor in the program can contact Kelly Little at Kelly.little@kidspeace.org.
For more information about Community Giving Foundation: Berwick visit its website at www.csgiving.org/berwick/
