No Matter Where They Start, All Kids Deserve Opportunity To Go Far
I can do anything. I can be anyone. I can go anywhere.
All kids deserve to think these thoughts. Right?
Not all kids can and not all kids do. Young people from under-resourced neighborhoods or who are living in high-poverty environments often lack the support and resources of their more financially stable peers.
The absence of the same advantages as other kids can contribute to some discouraging circumstances.
- Nationally 47% of students graduate high school unprepared for college or career
- By 8th grade, 2 in 3 students in the U.S. are reading below proficiency
- 1 in 7 high schoolers in the U.S. miss graduating on time
United Way fights to help all kids get the support they need, especially those who come from low-income neighborhoods.
Through a variety of programs and services we give kids the help they need – and deserve. Our initiatives help young people gain the knowledge, skills and credentials (such as a high school diploma) and receive the support they need to dream big and reach their potential.
United Way Funded Programs & Initiatives
Big Brothers Big Sisters – Youth Mentorship
Big Brothers Big Sisters connects kids with a caring adult mentor so they can understand and achieve all their future possibilities. Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Lakeshore exists to create professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships that assist at-risk youth by defending, inspiring, and empowering their potential to achieve lifelong success.
Boy Scouts of America – Leadership Development
Scouting provides value-based programs through mentorship, education, career, exploration, and life skill development. It's a progressive program with the objective to promote positive youth development that has a lasting impact on youth into young adulthood and throughout their life. In Cub Scouts, youth gain a foundation, learning about teamwork, respect, and community. In Scouts BSA and Venturing, they build on those foundations to become leaders, learn hard skills, and become active community members.
Boys & Girls Club – Great Futures & the Great Futures Coalition
BGCML seeks to ensure that all Muskegon County kids, especially those who need us most, have a positive and enriching experience when the school bell rings, putting them on the path to success as they reach their full potential as productive and caring citizens. The Great Futures Coalition project seeks to establish a coalition between all the out-of-school time youth-serving agencies in Muskegon County in order to increase program quality and effectiveness while maximizing resources and ensuring little duplication of efforts.
Community Foundation for Oceana County – College Access
Oceana College Access Network is a collaborative of k-12 schools, businesses, colleges, and organizations focused on ensuring all Oceana students have resources and the mindset to pursue and complete post-secondary education.
Girl Scouts MI Shore to Shore – Girl Scout Promise Program & Troops
The Girl Scout Leadership Experience is a one-of-a-kind leadership development program encouraging girls to discover themselves, connect with others, and take action to make the world a better place. Muskegon County girls have troop or individual experiences guided by supportive adult volunteers. They engage in age-appropriate activities that are girl-led, cooperative, and hands-on. Girls prepare for a lifetime of leadership in safe, girl-first environments. Girl Scouts’ proven results are based upon time-tested methods and research-backed programming that help girls take the lead-in their own lives and in the world. Girls practice skills, explore their potential, and take on leadership positions; they are even given the space to fail, dust themselves off, get up, and try again. The result will be top-notch Girl Scout Leadership Experiences that are available for all girls in Muskegon County. Girls will develop courage, confidence, and character and will be prepared to make the world a better place.
The Promise Program will reach low-socioeconomic status girls in grades K-12 in Muskegon County & support traditional troops. Working closely with schools, organizations, clubs, & other partners to reach girls & families not currently a part of Girl Scouting to break down barriers to participation.
Staircase Youth Service, Inc. – Youth Outreach
Staircase services at risk, runaway & homeless youth between the ages of 12-21. They provide 24 hr. crisis intervention, prevention services, assessments & referrals, case management, life skills training, & safe housing. Our goal is to promote positive youth development and strengthen families.
Step Up –
Step Up provides housing, mentoring, educational guidance and life skills training within a Christian environment for young adults ages 18-24 years old. Step Up serves those in our community who lack the above and who seek a successful transition to independent adulthood.
TrueNorth Community Services – TrueMentors
TrueMentors exists to build self-confidence and provide new experiences that support positive growth. TrueMentors offers one-to-one mentoring with adult volunteers, school-based programming in one-to-one settings and in small groups, along with outdoor adventure programs.
Pathfinders – Lights On Afterschool
Pathfinders is a Lights on Afterschool Program whose primary function to engage, empower and motivate youth ages 8-17. Their mission is to help youth find their way in life primarily in the Muskegon Heights area. They do this by providing programs that focus on providing reading readiness, life skills, tutoring, and creative expression.
Orchard View Community Education – Lights On Afterschool
The Lights On Afterschool Program is offered during the school year. The Cardinal Camp Program is offered during the summer months. They are designed to meet the academic, physical, and social-emotional needs of students in grades 1-6. Programs are built upon the input of parents, students, and educators.
White Lake Area Community Education – Lights On Afterschool for Whitehall & Montague
WLACE Lighthouse Learning Centers offer care to children ages 3-12 for before/after school, half days, early release, and non-school days (including snow days). They provide healthy snacks, art projects, reading and homework time, STEAM Activities, YMCA HOST programming, free time, and outdoor time - all in a fully licensed environment with trained staff who have a great love of the child. Lights On Afterschool is funded in part by a grant from the Howmet Foundation.
Get Involved - Mentors Help Local Students Picture and Achieve Their Dreams
For young people, there’s a special kind of magic that comes from having a supportive adult in their corner. It’s the feeling of someone seeing their potential. It’s the confidence to see themselves as capable of anything. It’s having the answers to questions they didn’t even know they should be asking.
Truancy & Chronic Absenteeism
Youth living in poverty are two to three times more likely to be absent from school. Often, they face the most harm from absenteeism due to lack of resources to make up for the lost learning in school. Students from communities of color, as well as those with disabilities, are disproportionately affected. According to Attendance Works, chronic absenteeism is not the same as truancy.
Truancy:
- Counts only unexcused absences
- Emphasizes compliance with school rules
- Relies on legal and administrative solutions
Chronic Absence:
- Counts all absences: excused, unexcused, and suspensions
- Emphasizes the academic impact of missed days
- Uses community-based positive strategies.
Often absences can be caused by health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, and oral and mental health issues. Other barriers may include a lack of a nearby school bus, a safe route to school, or food insecurity. Chronic absence often goes unnoticed because schools are counting how many students show up every day, rather than examining how many and which students miss so much school that they fall behind.
Research funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and published as “Present, Engaged and Accounted for: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades”, found that chronically absent students - those who miss 10% or nearly a month of school – do far worse academically. The study also revealed that 1 in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students nationwide miss nearly a month of school each year. In some cities, this rate is as high as 1 in 4 elementary students.
The Magic of Mentors
The mentors of United Way of the Lakeshore Partner Programs listed earlier; help make more of that magic in local kids’ lives.
Every time volunteers and mentees connect, it better prepares that young person to tackle life’s curveballs and achieve their dreams. As one mentee explained, her mentor was a tremendous help in planning for life after high school. “Before I had a mentor, I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn't know how to get there. Now there's someone there to direct me,” she said.
Just how impactful can a mentor be? Studies have shown that of young people who have a caring adult in their corner:
- 76 percent aspire to enroll in and graduate from college
- 51 percent hold a leadership position in a club, sports team, school council or another group*
- 48 percent volunteer regularly in their communities
These experiences can help kids develop agency and build self-confidence, as well as better prepare them to face challenges before, during and after high school.
Get Involved Today!
If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please contact our United Way of the Lakeshore Community Engagement Office at dominique@unitedwaylakeshore.org or call (231) 332-4006. Or you can check out our volunteer center GetConnected site at volunteer.unitedwaylakeshore.org
Special Opportunities for Those Age 55 & Up
Volunteers who are age 55 and up have the opportunity to become an AmeriCorps Seniors member! The AmeriCorps Seniors program helps match volunteers to mentorship opportunities (and other available options) based on the volunteer’s personality, skills, and needs. AmeriCorps Seniors help build a strong and “healthy” foundation for children to help them stay on track to remain in school, graduate, pursue a higher rate of successes into adulthood, and help address educational achievement gaps for those in need.
Join Us For a Social Media Campaign!
In recognition of the role, mentors play in the lives of pre-teens and teens and the magic they make; United Way of the Lakeshore is taking to social media using #iammadebymentors. Have you added your story of mentorship to our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages? If not, we invite you to join the conversation now!
You can also support mentorship in the community by making a gift to United Way of the Lakeshore. Your support helps make it possible for us to continue our fight to help all kids succeed.
