Mentors Care

Our communities have an outsized population of economically disadvantaged high school students whose needs are not met. These disengaged youths have the highest impact on our high school dropout rate. At this time, Texas’s student attrition rate is at 24%. That means one out of five Texas high school students drops out before graduating from high school. At the same time, as of 2020, 65% of all jobs in the United States will require post-secondary education.

At-risk students from rural and suburban communities (our target demographic) have little to no resources available to them although 60% of the students in our Ellis County, TX communities are considered to be economically disadvantaged.

WHICH STUDENTS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE “AT-RISK”?
The term “at-risk” is used in education to identify students who may not graduate from high school due to varying predictive indicators.
• Low Attendance
• Poor academic performance
• Held back from advancing to the next level • Pregnant or is a parent
• Placed in alternative education programs
• Expelled from school
• On probation or in community service
• Economic hardships
• Homelessness
• And more

[https://www.texasstudentdatasystem.org/TSDS/TEDS/ESCs_LEAs_Using_PEIMS]

Most of these students considered to be at risk have social and emotional needs that school educators and administrators are not equipped or staffed to address and overwhelmed children are dropping out of school due to hopelessness. The overall lack in coping skills plaguing high school students facing these hardships presents a major barrier to their academic success and Mentors Care is a proven solution.

60% Are Economically Disadvantaged; 11,177 Are Homeless; they are disconnected from arents, peers & educators offered few (if any) social programs lack social-emotional support at home and at school.

The one-hour-per-week face-time spent between student and mentor is a key component in restoring trust, self-confidence and a change of course for the better among student recipients. When students remain in the program for at least two years, on average, 98% of seniors go on to graduate. At the close of the 2020-2021 school year, 100% of seniors in the program graduated while 70% of all students in the program maintained or progressed in credits earned. Forty-eight percent (48%) improved in attendance and 40% were connected with other community resources through coordinators. Most of the students experienced major turnarounds in their life's trajectory.

Mentors Care targets underserved high schools in areas where the unique needs of at-risk students are all too often overlooked or neglected and find little or no social services to help support their academic studies. We place a professional, program coordinator within every participating school location. The program coordinator has an office located within the school and is always open to students.

We are currently providing mentorship to the following North Texas high schools:

Advantage Academy (Grand Prairie, Texas)
Ferris
Maypearl
Midlothian
Midlothian Heritage High School
Palmer
Red Oak
Wylie (Abilene, Texas)
Ellis County Juvenile Justice Education Program (JJAEP)

In 2020-2021, we will also bring our program to Advantage Academy in Grand Prairie, Texas.

With the consent of the participating students’ parents or legal guardians, school administrators allow Mentors Care’s Program Coordinators access to participating students’ grades and other protected student data and information for Mentors Care’s use in helping to encourage and better ensure the students’ performance and progress. By meeting "at-risk" students in the school library one day a week, our trained and highly-qualified mentors commit time, emotions and efforts to help to participating students overcome the obstacles that might otherwise stand in their way.

We provide a safe space in a socially challenging environment where students can grow and share aspects of their lives with caring adults. Our mentors are positive role models and our program coordinators assist students by providing academic guidance as well. Mentors Care helps them find the strength, discipline, and character within themselves that’s necessary to overcome.

Our overall program success rate and longstanding among the North Texas communities speak to our capabilities in this field. This program repeatedly proves to be needed and effective (more and more each year. In fact, 100% of participating seniors in 2020-2021 graduated while more than 70% of participating high school students maintained or progressed in credits earned.

A lot of research, collaboration, and effort go into making Mentors Care a success, but mostly our success can be attributed to our great North Texas communities for supporting our program for 13 years now. Successful youth make successful community members someday. Over the last 13 years, we have conferred with experts ranging from school violence prevention and social-emotional wellbeing to program development and sustainability.

In the last year, many new school districts in North Texas have requested our services and there are currently others knocking at our door because not only is our program needed, but we're the best in our field with TRUE results of success.

Since our inception in 2009, we have matched more than 1,300 high school students considered to be “at-risk” of not graduating with caring, with successful adults who built them up and encouraged them to achieve academic success.

When our program began, we offered mentoring services to one (1) school. As of 2021, we have expanded into a total of nine (9).

Our students have moved into their bright futures as an honor student at Navarro Junior College; attending Community College; a nursing student at Navarro Junior College; a Criminal Justice major at Sam Houston College; a student in art school; a welder; military and the list goes on!

As our program’s success catches on, we can expect more local support and even more responsibilities.