Panelists will present a paper on their efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to mobilize their university's students to help look after the community's at-risk children by becoming long-term mentors through various local agencies. A partnership was created between university faculty and various local agencies to plan and implement this project. The efforts represent a matching of two needs: (1) the desire of large numbers of students to have more hands-on and pre-professional experience in the community as part of their education; (2) the long waiting lists of at-risk children at various agencies and in the schools who have no caring adults in their lives.
Students who participate as mentors receive internship credits for their efforts that may satisfy a Citizenship requirement under General Education, and will undergo a substantial pre-professional learning experience. The current task is to complete a comprehensive survey of agencies in the community and create a directory of mentoring opportunities (that lists age requirements, screening procedures, etc.) as a guide for student mentors in the coming year.
The effort described here is linked to some broader community-building efforts in the Green Bay community, most notably in the Sustainable Green Bay Initiative's efforts to create a healthy community, and also the SEARCH Institute's efforts to identify community assets that support the healthy development of young people.