Project One on One: Academic Mentoring

Project One on One: Academic Mentors

Consistent readers of "A Helping Hand", CRN's newsletter, are familiar with how often we talk about Project One on One. Unlike one-day events where everyone has a good time, academic mentoring takes considerably more commitment and effort, and is not always fun. Establishing trust and communication with kids who have learned the hard way to fear adults because they are untrustworthy - or at best unreliable - can be very difficult.

Our program is structured as team mentoring, meaning a team of volunteers meets with a group of children at the same time. This way if one or more volunteers are unable to make it to a session, the children can still benefit from someone's help. We try to keep the ratio one to one, but this is not always possible due to limited volunteer resources. That's why it's so important to be consistent and reliable and to help us get the word out!

The mentor sessions are academically focused. There will be lesson guides to help you teach reading, writing, or math skills. You will find that most of the students are lacking in basic skills and the best way to help them is to fill in those gaps. Students may or may not have homework, and they may or may not want to work on it. Don't push the issue. If they want homework help then you can certainly offer that, and if not then work with the lesson guides. Hopefully your students will begin to take interest in their homework!

We call it a mentoring program because without a trusting, friendly relationship there is no getting through to a lot of these kids. They need skills, yes; but more than that they need encouragement and attention that is crucial to healthy social development. As a mentor, you can show your students that education is important and learning can be fun, and you can celebrate progress.

For some mentoring resources found on the web, CLICK HERE

For a copy of the One on One orientation manual, CLICK HERE

For a list of upcoming orientation sessions, go to the bottom of the page.

                                 Upcoming orientations



Wednesday, January 25th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. CRN Office

Saturday, January 28th, 10:30 – Noon. CRN Office

Wednesday, February 1st, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. CRN Office

Wednesday, February 8th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. CRN Office

Saturday, February 11th, 10:30 – Noon. CRN Office

Wednesday February 15th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. CRN Office

Saturday, February 25th, 10:30 – Noon. CRN Office

Contact Ben to set up an individual session.

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All orientation sessions are held at the CRN office in Roswell

To volunteer call Ben at 770 649-7117 or email ben@childrn.org