Christmas tree farmer Jim Tully wanted to help kids who felt invisible, unheard. With no formal mentoring experience beyond being a dad, Tully knew he needed training, and he found it at Rogue Valley Mentoring in Medford, which matches volunteers with teens and young adults who, for many reasons, need a trusted grownup to give encouraging advice and keep their promise to show up.
Rogue Valley Mentoring, a nonprofit organization that provides free mental and behavioral health support, is a beneficiary of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s 2023 Season of Sharing holiday fundraising campaign. Donations fund enriching activities for mentor-mentee pairs as well as staff-guided group discussions in schools.
When schools closed temporarily at the start of the pandemic in 2020, the staff of four filled an increased need to help students who felt anxious and isolated. In addition to working with kids, their families and educators in Jackson County, the nonprofit, which now has 17 employees, provides 67 volunteers with ongoing training.
“They expect you to have a learning curve and they give you enough guidance and structure that you feel safe giving it a try,” said Tully, 61, who lives in Ashland with his wife, Camille. “If you can be consistent, patient and model acceptable behavior and social practices to youth, that’s a big start.”
As a mentor, Tully donates an hour a week to the student he was matched with based on common interests. Over time, he has gained confidence and so have the young people, age 12 to 22, he has taught to change a tire, play chess and share what’s on their mind. After about a decade of volunteering, Tully was hired in 2021 to work with the organization’s staff to coach new volunteers.
> Donate to Rogue Valley Mentoring or the Season of Sharing general fund. You can also Text the code SHARE2023 to 44-321.
Since 2005, Rogue Valley Mentoring, formerly known as the Rose Circle Mentoring Network, has trained more than 500 adults who have helped more than 2,000 mentees. The nonprofit’s 2023 budget is $990,287. Revenue is from local foundations, government funds and service contracts, with a significant in-kind donation from committed volunteers, according to Rogue Valley Mentoring.
“We build trust by showing up and listening,” said the nonprofit’s Executive Director Laura Pinney. “Kids need to feel heard and to know their voice and their life matters.”
Pinney said 97% of the youth in the program qualified for free and reduced school lunches and 14% have a disability. Students can also have post-pandemic fear about future health or environmental catastrophes, especially those, many in the Phoenix-Talent School District, who experienced loss during the 2020 wildfires. Stress and other factors can lead to frustration, anger and violence.
The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (Youth.gov) has found that supportive, healthy relationships formed between mentors and mentees have both immediate and long-term benefits and impact kids’ lifestyle choices, behavior at home and at school, and reduce the likelihood of drug and alcohol use.
The land Rogue Valley Mentoring leases has picnic tables in a grove of walnut trees where participants gather. Here, harvestable mulberry and plum trees as well as vegetables growing in the garden teach kids about the way plants thrive by adapting to change. Nature trails to Bear Creek, which runs through the property, and an adjacent biking and hiking greenway also inspire shared activities. Some participants have repaired donated bikes they then ride on the bike path.
One volunteer taught a boy to fish. “At first, (the boy) was nervous about the fishing hook, but the mentor continued to fish and talk about the pleasures of quietly waiting for a fish and what it meant to eat the fish he caught,” Pinney said. “Somehow, that connected, and the boy became excited about the idea of being able to catch his own food.”
For the 2023-24 academic year, Rogue Valley Mentoring staff and volunteers are at Talent Middle School and, 55 miles north, a charter school in Prospect, a former logging town in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest. Mentoring also takes place in groups, called community circles, held in libraries, Boys & Girls Clubs and Spartan Boxing, a nonprofit gym in Medford.
In the circles, kids see they are not alone as they talk about ways to cope with their concerns, feelings of inadequacy and managing frustrations. Something as simple as a student passing out snacks — “and being fair about it,” Pinney said — or empathizing with an upset classmate by saying, “I’ve experienced that, too,” are signs of maturity.
Volunteers have passed a thorough background check and regularly receive training in communication, adolescent development, avoiding bias and suicide intervention. They follow a curriculum in the circles, but customize the icebreaker game, depending on the students. At a rural school, when 7th to 10th graders were asked, “would you rather hunt or fish?” they questioned why they had to choose one over the other.
The discussion among the teens led to stories of their experiences, who was with them and what they did with the food. “This type of healthy peer-to-peer interaction is important for kids to develop skills to make connections, respect different opinions and find friends not through devices but in person,” said Pinney.
The Oregonian/OregonLive
What your donation can do
$25: Supports mentoring for one youth in group mentoring for a week, including snacks and activities.
$50: Supports an enriching activity for one mentor-mentee pair, such as attending a play or movie or playing putt-putt golf or bowling.
$100: Supports an immersive field trip experience for youth who wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity or a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) kit for a science-minded youth.
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman