Friends for Youth and the Golden State Warriors

A group of 25 mentors and mentees saw the Golden State Warriors play the New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday evening. Although the game did not have a favorable result for the home team, Friendships proved that your team doesn't have to win for you to have a good time.

For example, t-shirts are exciting. Friends for Youth came to the game as guests of Warrior forward Brandon Rush and sat in the "Rush's Rascal's" section of the upper level. Because of this special placement, everybody got his or her own special "Rush's Rascals" t-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

The game was a close one, and so the crowd was engaged throughout the evening. Besides the game, there was one excitement that brought the whole crowd to its feet. Between periods there was a shootout between two die-hard fans. For each shot made, the fan received a certain amount of cash. Both attempted a single shot from different spots on the court: the free-throw line, the three-point arc line, and the half-court line. A successful free-throw won the shooter $500, a three pointer won $2,000, and a half-court prayer won $25,000! After both fans entirely missed the basket on their three-point attempts, it was looking bleak for either to have a good chance at that $25,000. So the whole crowd was ecstatically surprised when one of the fans hit his half-court shot! $25,000 just like that!

Friends for Youth wants to thank all the Friendships who came and made this game such a fun activity, as well as the Golden State Warriors and Brandon Rush for their generosity.

Special Pacifica Information Session in May

Friends for Youth will be offering a special Information Session opportunity for potential north peninsula volunteers on Wednesday, May 16 at 6:30 pm at the Pacifica Sharp Park Library.

Because individuals can volunteer conveniently near their home or work, it makes sense that Information Sessions should be convenient too. That's why more and more sessions are being held beyond Redwood City, so people can get started in the application process easily, and start making a difference in their communities right away!

To sign up for the Pacifica Information Session, visit www.friendsforyouth.org/beamentor

U.S. Open Volunteer Opportunity

Friends for Youth has the opportunity to raise funds by staffing concession stands with volunteers at the US Open golf tournament in San Francisco June 11-17, 2012.   

Volunteers are allowed and encouraged to watch golf before/after their scheduled shift.  

Both adult and high school aged volunteers are welcome.

Learn more or sign up.

Please join us and support Friends for Youth.  Bring a friend--or a group of friends!

Friends for Youth Gets Geared Up For Baseball Season

REDWOOD CITY, April 2012 - It’s baseball season, and Friends for Youth is getting in the game.

The Friends for Youth fiscal year has just begun, and the slogan “Get In The Game, Be a Mentor” has been unveiled to highlight a new season of activity-oriented volunteer mentoring. At Friends for Youth, mentoring is all about having fun.

The program looks for positive adult mentors who want to have fun with an at-risk young person on a regular basis. The program encourages Friendships to do various sports and movement-related activities, like playing basketball, attending baseball games, or just going to the park.

“My favorite activity was Laser Quest,” said mentee Cody, who’s been meeting with his mentor Lindsey for over a year.

Mentee Devin said that the best time he had with his mentor Lu was “going hiking and getting lost.” (They found their way back to the trail).

It is evident that active outings leave a permanent impression on mentees in the program. That’s why Friends for Youth is proud to be a community partner of the San Francisco Giants, whose support over the years has created memories for countless mentoring Friendships at the baseball stadium and beyond.

The recent addition of support materials like the “Eat Well, Stay Active, Have Fun Guide for Mentors,” created by the Harvard School of Public Health, also help ensure that activity-focused mentoring Friendships have many fun activity ideas from which to choose.

Friends for Youth, Inc. has been matching at-risk youth with positive adults for more than 33 years. With a long-term match success rate of nearly 90%, Friends for Youth stands out as a model program in the mentoring field.

Friends for Youth One of Fifteen Organizations to Receive Pro Bono Advice from Morgan Stanley

REDWOOD CITY, April 3, 2012 - Friends for Youth, Inc. has been chosen to participate in the Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge, a volunteer program that provides select nonprofits with pro bono strategic consulting.

Friends for Youth leadership heads to New York on Wednesday to kick-off the 8 week strategy challenge. Friends for Youth will work with a team of Morgan Stanley employees to improve its growth strategies. In June the pro bono team will present its recommendations for Friends for Youth to a panel of experts from both the public and private sectors. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will present awards to the top three teams.

Friends for Youth Executive Director Becky Cooper said, “being selected for the Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge is an honor and also a tremendous opportunity. Friends for Youth is excited to work with Morgan Stanley, and we look forward to a very fruitful eight weeks.”

The Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge is now in its fourth year, and serves nonprofits in San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

Support Child Abuse Prevention Month through our 2012 SAFE Campaign

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and, as strong supporters of this cause, we’re helping this year’s campaign by raising awareness of the current (and ongoing) problem of unsafe adults in trusted situations who sexually abuse children. We’ll be posting information on a regular basis this month, included in a weekly email, to remind you that, no matter the size of your program budget, the costs connected to child abuse - in both human and financial terms - are expensive, but prevention is affordable.

We’re also launching a campaign to raise funds to help us publish a second edition of our highly recommended resource, SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations. Created with our over 30 years of experience and recent research, SAFE is the solution to preventing child molesters from gaining access to vulnerable children through mentoring and other volunteer programs. Help us reach more youth professionals, and keep more children SAFE, by providing new resource and training to prevent child sexual abuse.

We’re asking your help in raising $25,000 to create and publish a new edition of SAFE. This version will include a trainer’s manual, featuring updated research on child sexual abusers, more recommended tools and processes for programs to implement, and information from our chapter, Mentor Screening and Youth Safety, included in the upcoming Handbook on Youth Mentoring, 2nd edition, to be published this fall.

• Please donate and help us reach more youth-serving programs to prevent child sexual abuse. Even $10 will help us achieve our goal!
  

• Read about our response to the Penn State scandal.
  

• Learn more about SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations.
  

• Remember that youth, not the mentors, are the clients. Read more tips about mentor screening and youth safety.
  

• Approximately 75-90% of abusers are known by their victims--these include relatives, teachers, coaches, and mentors. Read more statistics.
  

• Who’s Lending a Hand? A National Survey of Nonprofit Volunteer Screening Practices, from The National Center for Victims of Crime, is the first survey of national nonprofits and their screening practices. The results indicate that more programs need to do more! Read more resources to see what else is available.
  

SAFE TESTIMONIALS

“This session was applicable to the current daily functioning of my program. I left with a concrete solution to a difficult decision that I am currently faced with.”

“Thank you for taking the time to put together this valuable information. Knowledge is powerful. But Applied Knowledge is what really makes the difference.”

“SAFE is one of the best resources we have utilized in our program. Thank you for making these presentations available to all of us!”

“Kudos! I attend a lot of trainings on youth protection, and I definitely came away with some new tools to use in my job. Thanks!”

Spotlight Friendships

Antonia and Elizabeth met on Elizabeth’s birthday last February and the gift of Friendship has just kept on giving. Elizabeth was ready to meet her mentor as she had already been watching her two older sisters go out and about with their mentors for months by the time it was her turn. During their year they went on lots of Friends for Youth group activities, such as the Beach Extravaganza, Hip Hop Dance Class, Community Service with the Seniors at Lytton Gardens, and Visioning Your Future Life Skill Workshop. They also received tickets for Barnum & Bailey Circus and the California Academy of Sciences. They did lots of different things during their time, but both agree that some of the most special time they’ve spent together has been cooking at Antonia’s house.

Lindsey and Cody were matched last February and both agree that this year has been amazing! Both really look forward to their time together. Lindsey and Cody took advantage of many of the Friends for Youth activities and free tickets. The first Friends for Youth group activity they attended was Jump Sky High. They both had a blast. Another one of their favorite Friends for Youth activities was Community Service with the Seniors at Lytton Gardens. Cody had a great time playing board games with the residents. One of this Friendship’s favorite things to do together is play board games, so Cody was able to show off and share his skills with the Seniors that day. Lindsey and Cody also got a chance to go to Alcatraz, the Snow trip, and the Beach Extravaganza. Lindsey and Cody see no end to their Friendship and look forward to their future adventures.

A Big Thank You!

The Friends for Youth fiscal year ends March 31. We are on track to reach all of our original goals. Friends for Youth’s Mentoring Services wants to thank all the committees, organizations, and companies that have helped recruit the mentors we needed to make this year a success.

Thanks are due to Foothill College and Notre Dame de Namur University both for holding volunteer fairs on their campuses. Thank you to the members of DOVIA and to the Volunteer Center, who helped provide fresh ideas and support. To companies like Groupon, Cloudera, Google and Oracle for opening up their doors and networks to Friends for Youth, so that more youth might have a positive Friend. To radio stations like KBAY, KZSU and ESPN Deportes for broadcasting our volunteer opportunity. To news outlets like Patch.com, San Mateo Daily Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Mountain View Voice for continued support. And to the ServeSurfer Foundation, Meetup, and Redwood City Chamber of Commerce for helping us connect to local people who are passionate about helping their community.

To these and many other businesses, councils, organizations and people, Friends for Youth says, “Thank you!”