December 18, 2014
Last year Webster Elementary School in Plymouth started a mentoring program called Kids Hope USA. This program partners with two local United Methodist churches in town to provide mentors for students.
This week there was their Holiday party after school with the mentors, teachers, students, and any parents who wished to attend.
Kids Hope USA started with 10 kids and mentors last year and expanded to 13 this year. The program has really changed lives already and they have a lot of kids on the waiting list for mentors.
Carrie McGuire, Principal at Webster said, “This program is very important to me, I will say this is one of the best things I have seen happen at Webster Elementary in my 9 years on board.” She continued, “I believe when our students are partnered up with a Kids Hope Mentor, they try harder in the classroom and improve their overall behavior.”
“The students really do look forward to the visit from their mentors.”
Jessica Gordon, the local Kids Hope Director for Trinity United Methodist Church said, “Kids Hope trains its mentors to adhere to separation of church and state, meaning there is no mention of religion from our mentors to the student mentees.”
Kids Hope USA is a national mentoring organization, a nonprofit with the model: one church, one school, one child, one hour.