The Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. has taken over administration of a familiar mentoring program that offers an opportunity for elders across the state to receive a small stipend in exchange for spending 20 hours per week teaching rural children in public schools and pre-schools.
The Alaska Elder Mentor Program, funded by the Alaska State Department of Health and Social Services and the Corporation for National Community Service, will involve more than 150 elders from different locations across the state. Each elder will work with three to four students on an individual basis -- helping with school assignments, building a personal bond, teaching them about their Native culture, and imparting skills pertinent to life in rural Alaska.
"We hear from teachers that students are often more engaged in class," when an elder is present, program manager Jan Abbott said in a press release. "The goal of the program is to improve school readiness for the preschool children and focus more on academic achievement in the older students."
Previously called the Foster Grandparent Program, the mentor program began in the mid-1970s. During the past summer, the program took a brief hiatus as RurAL CAP prepared to take over organization. RurAL CAP hopes the longtime program will continue to grow.
"It's been very fun for me reaching out to these schools and finding out how it has worked in the past in classrooms all over the state," Abbott said. "We've heard a lot of anecdotal things about the program, like the presence of these elders bringing a calming effect with them into the classrooms, as well as bringing some wisdom and culture into the lives of these kids. These elders also share some of their knowledge with things like cooking and imparting traditional values. Overall it has brought a kind of balance that is good for the kids and extremely helpful to teachers, and some of the low-income elders get a stipend for spending some of their time with these children. It isn't a lot, but that little boost every month for some of these 'foster elders' can really help."
By July, RurAL CAP plans on enlisting the help of at least 150 volunteers across the state to help usher in a new and improved program targeting younger students. The original program enlisted 120 to 130 volunteers in 20 to 30 locations across the state. The revamped program will focus the majority of its efforts on preschool Head Start programs and students in elementary school.
"There aren't going to be too many changes with respect to the majority of the rural communities in Alaska, but in larger population areas like Anchorage, the program will specifically target schools that really need it," Abbott said. "Our goals are to get the little ones ready for kindergarten by having a positive elder influence there to help them, and to help boost the levels of engagement in our elementary schools for some of the older students. From the numbers that we have, we definitely see our attendance records go up in schools that are involved in the program and hopefully that attendance boost will also help raise some of the academic achievement levels in these schools as well."
The program is seeking new volunteers. Information about how to apply is on the RurAL CAP website.
"We are reaching out to all communities we can to see if people are interested in starting the mentor program back up in their communities by re-enlisting as volunteers and getting enthusiasm back up for the program," Abbot said.
RurAL CAP, founded in 1965, is a private, nonprofit that strives to improve the quality of life for low-income Alaskans across the state. The program is governed by a 24-member board of directors that represents every region of the state, making it one of the largest and most diverse nonprofits in the state. In 2012, the program employed more than 1,000 Alaskans in 81 separate communities.
This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.