Closing the Book on a Year of Academic Mentorship

Some of our dedicated young readers and a few of our volunteer mentors from 2016

Since October 2015, Children’s Restoration Network (CRN) has partnered with Cherokee Family Violence Center to implement Project One on One, an academic mentorship program to assist children who would like to develop academically and professionally.  Every Monday evening Project One on One mentors and students met individually or in small groups to focus on homework, projects, or skill building activities.  CFVC and CRN would have been able to  make this opportunity successful for the children in our program without the help of the 11 mentors who volunteered with us this academic year: Alison Abbot, Barbara Asperger, Christine Basso, Nolan Byrnes, Michele Galloway, Robin Kearney, Ellen Lavey, Nadia Mahmood, Ashley Patton, Madison Pippins, and Natosha Williams.  Christine Basso was an extra hit because she brought one of her four dogs as part of the Reading Education Assistance Dog (READ) program where children read to the dog. Many children found this to be more comfortable for them.

We had a total of 24 children attend academic mentoring during our first year of the program!  We are hoping to increase the number of mentors which will allow for us to increase the number of students who can participate in Project One on One during the next school year when we resume our program on August 1, 2016.  To celebrate the great year our students and mentors had, last night we celebrated with a pizza party, snacks, and board games!

We are excited to see our partnership with CRN, our mentors and, of course, the great young minds in our program continue to develop into next year.  If you are interested in becoming an academic mentor at CFVC, please contact Children’s Restoration Network at (770) 649-7117.