Church Group Reaches Out To 10 Schools
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Del.icio.usThe angels of Common Grace certainly have far-reaching wings, and with a recent $18,000 grant from the Harold K. L. Castle Foundation, they can spread those wings even wider.
Common Grace has a mission to be the catalyst to help public elementary schools partner with local churches to create caring mentorships for lonely and needy children. The new funding will support the creation of 10 new partnerships from Waimanalo to Kahuku and provide mentors for 150 Windward Oahu children by June 2010.
“Castle oversees the needs of children and families in communities throughout the area, and when they heard about the work that we’re doing they honored us with the grant,“said Common Grace executive director Jay Jarman.“They just want to see more children given mentors and provided with this kind of opportunity.”
The most rewarding yet hardest part is finding churches ready and willing to partner with local schools.“Right now we have the need, but our supply just isn’t quite there yet,” he said.
Interested mentors are trained by Common Grace, followed by a rigorous background check. Once cleared, they are paired with a school and a child for one hour, one day a week. The children all have a need or desire for personal attention beyond what classroom teachers can give.
“We call it an hour well spent,” Jarman said. “We encourage meaningful conversations for at least the first 15 minutes so that they can really better understand these kids and where they’re coming from. We really emphasize the listening aspect of it, because sometimes all they really need is someone to listen and care what they have to say.
“Then we usually do about 30 minutes of recreational reading so that the children will learn to love books in the presence of someone who loves them. The last 15 minutes is usually a game,whether it be a board game or a physical activity, so that the child looks forward to these meetings each week.”
The group also won a Partnership in Education award from the state Department of Education, and the resulting publicity has generated a flood of requests for mentors, Jarman added. “Some teachers often think ‘Oh, if I could only give more individual time to that one little boy or girl,‘and that’s where we come in. We’re all about kindness for kids - giving that one-on-one attention to children who really want and need it.”
The group supports 40 partnerships on Oahu and three on Kauai, with plans in the works for Lanai.
For more information, call 282-4335 or visit www.commongrace.org.
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