For Immediate Release: Cheri Faunce, Interim Director
March 11, 2013 785.368.6211, cfaunce@ksde.org
Kansas Mentors Announces Grant Recipients
Funds will aid mentoring programs to ensure safe mentoring relationships
TOPEKA - Kansas Mentors (KM) is pleased to announce more than $45,000 in funding to 11 mentoring programs to help offset the costs of background checks conducted through the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI).
In 2012, Kansas Mentors was awarded $100,000 from Volunteer Kansas to distribute funds to Kansas mentoring programs conducting KBI background checks on mentors. KM is distributing $58,000 in funds during 2013.
“Kansas’ mentoring programs are reporting significant declines in funding as well as an increase in the need for services,” Coach Bill Snyder, chair of Kansas Mentors, said. “These funds are a strategic investment to ensure more young Kansans have access to a safe and caring adult role model.”
Background checks are an essential component of the screening process to help ensure the safety of youth involved in mentoring programs. The cost of criminal background checks, however, is substantial considering every mentor should complete and pass a check before they can begin mentoring. This can be a huge funding barrier that can potentially limit the number of young people a program serves or even worse, put youth in danger should a mentoring program forgo the background check because of the cost. This grant serves as an avenue to bridge the gap and encourage mentoring programs to continue doing important checks on potential volunteer mentors.
Kansas Mentors is currently partnered with more than 175 mentoring programs serving all 105 Kansas counties. The organization is committed to providing every young Kansan access to a caring and quality mentor through recruitment, awareness, and training efforts. Funding is still available for this grant. Mentoring programs interested in applying for funding can visit Kansas Mentors at www.KansasMentors.org.
Kansas Mentors Grant Recipients
County Program Grant Award
Chase, Coffey, Lyon & Morris Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Flint Hills, Inc. $1,700
Saline Big Brothers Big Sisters of Salina $3,000
Butler Butler County Department on Aging- Foster Grandparents $825
Sedgwick MHA Compeer Mentoring $400
Riley HandsOn Kansas State: Academic Mentoring $960
Statewide Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters $20,000
Kiowa, Pratt & Ford MATCH: Mentor a Teen; Create Hope $1,500
Riley North Central-Flint Hills AAA- Foster Grandparents $700
Shawnee Women Empowerment, Inc. $300
Statewide YouthFriends Kansas $15,000
Sedgwick Youth Horizons $1,400
The mission of VolunteerKansas is to connect potential volunteers with organizations that need help. Based in Wichita, KS, VolunteerKansas has an extensive and diverse network of individual, corporate and nonprofit contacts, making it uniquely suited to take on the vision of Kansas as the top volunteer state in the nation. To learn more, please visit www.volunteerkansas.org or contact Nola Brown at 316.260.3353.
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