In 2012 Questscope launched One2One, its first mentoring program in the United States. One2One adapted Questscope’s time-tested model to fit within North View Junior High (NVJH) in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Since then, the program has tripled in size. Nearly 85 students were connected with mentoring relationships with trusted adults from a local community college during the 2013/14 school year.
Embedded into NVJH, One2One guides mentors and students along a social-emotional learning curriculum and seeks to help students improve their attendance, behavior and grades while instilling leadership and professional skills in mentors.
Reflecting on his relationship with his mentor last year, one student commented, “I appreciate that my mentor is helpful. He helps me with math and stuff and he’s just awesome. I have learned that I am smarter than I think I am.”
Through steadfast relationship building, NVJH students find a safe space to set visionary goals. Within a supportive community, obstacles in the way of these goals are minimized and students are empowered to achieve them.
Because of the success of the program, One2One will launch a pilot mentoring program in partnership with the YMCA this fall. In October, 20 new middle school students will join 20 new mentors at the Southdale YMCA to complete our matching process. Mentors will then begin the process of learning about their student’s strengths and challenges so that they can help them succeed, along with the 85 students at NVJH, in school, in their families, and in their communities. All of this means that, come October, over 100 Minnesota youth will be engaging in healthy mentoring relationships with One2One. We are excited to see the positive change that this will create in the lives of our students and the ways in which their relationships will affect mentor volunteers, local youth-serving organizations and schools, and the families that love them.
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