We serve at-risk youth through mentoring and encouragement.

About At-Risk Youth > The Need for Mentoring

The problem of fatherlessness.

In the early 1960's, approximately 5% of all children were born into homes with absent fathers. By 2004, that number had grown to 25%. Today, one in four children in America grow up without a father in the home. That statistic translates to more than 25 million children in the U.S.

The cost of fatherlessness.

Study after study shows that kids without a positive role model are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior.

  • 72% of all adolescent murders are committed by children who have grown up in fatherless homes. (Josh McDowell, author and lecturer)
  • Over 70% of prison inmates in America grew up in homes without their fathers (Josh McDowell, author and lecturer).
  • 85% of children with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Center for Disease Control).
  • 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (National Principals' Association Report on the Statistics of High Schools).
  • 75% of adolescents in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (Rainbows for all God's Children).
  • 70% of kids who live in state institutions are from fatherless homes (U.S. Department of Justice Special Report).
  • 85% of all kids locked up in youth prisons had no father involved in their lives (Texas Department of Corrections).

Mentoring: one solution.

In a landmark study* on mentoring, 1,000 kids were taken from a mentoring program waiting list to be studied. Five hundred of the kids were matched with a mentor, and 500 were not. In just 18 months, kids matched with a mentor were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 33% less likely to engage in violence, 53% less likely to skip school, and 27% less likely to begin using alcohol.

A child needs you.

There are currently 600,000 American kids working with a mentor, with another 4.5 million on a waiting list. In Sedgwick County, there are more than 1,000 kids on waiting lists. These are kids who have said they want an adult to invest in them. To volunteer, or to get more information about volunteering, click on one of the links below.

Volunteer

FAQs for Mentors

Mentor Stories

Protege Stories

* The study was conducted by Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia-based national research organization.