The mission of Partners is to empower youth and community members to achieve their full potential through mentoring, prevention education, and strategic partnership. We create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships between positive adult role models and youth facing challenges in their personal, social, and academic lives. We also provide prevention education programming which addresses challenges and risk factors that lead youth to poor decision-making, particularly substance misuse.

We serve all of Larimer County and Northern Weld County through our offices in Fort Collins, Greeley, and Estes Park.

Partners was established in Northern Colorado in 1978. We are an affiliate of the Partners Mentoring Association active across Colorado, which was established in 1968.

We offer one-to-one mentoring through our community-based and school-based programs. Community-based mentoring involves spending 3 hours a week with a youth out in the community. School-based mentoring involves spending 1 hour a week with a youth in their school during the school day. Activity Volunteers help facilitate our monthly activities for youth who are waiting to be paired with a mentor and transport youth to and from these activities. Our prevention education programming provides social-emotional resources and skills to youth and families which aim to address challenges and risk-factors that lead youth to poor decision-making and substance misuse.

Partners’ programs are research-based and follow best practices to ensure that we provide the best possible programs to youth. We collect data and conduct annual evaluations to track the impact we have on youth. Over the past several years, we have found that youth who spend a year with a mentor benefit by achieving:

• Increased confidence and self-esteem
• Better decision-making skills
• Improved social and communication skills
• Better ability to bond with adults
• Improved academic engagement
• Increased hope for the future

We have a mix of funding streams, including foundation support, government grants and contracts, special event fundraising, and corporate and individual contributions. We are always looking for new donors and supporters, as our mentoring programs are entirely community-funded, and we do not charge youth or families to participate.

We serve youth ages 7-17 years old.

Every youth in our mentoring programs is referred by a professional in the community. Youth in our programs are experiencing problems in their personal, social, and/or academic lives. These challenges can be a range of things and are often experienced by youth who lack enough positive adult support in their lives. Here are some of the statistics on risk factors among our youth:

• 84% face mental health issues, either themselves or within their immediate family
• 82% are in low-income or poverty-level homes
• 67% have been victims of some type of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence
• 63% struggle academically
• 34% are affected by substance abuse
• 49% live in single-parent households

While these challenges do have a big impact on our youth, they do not define them. Ultimately, when you meet the youth in our programs, you will find that they are typical kids who are excited about working with a mentor. We do not expect our volunteers to have special training in trauma or therapeutic methods, but instead to be a consistent, present, positive, and supportive force for their mentee. We offer our volunteers trainings on various topics throughout the year. Once you become a mentor, you and your mentee will be assigned a case manager in the form of one of our program staff. They will meet with you regularly to ensure things are going well and to provide support any time in case any issues arise.

While mentoring is beneficial to all youth, we use our resources to focus on youth who are facing significant challenges in their personal, social, and academic lives, and are least likely to have additional positive adult role models in their lives. All youth in our mentoring programs must be referred by a professional in the community that knows the child’s case. The most common referral agents are school counselors, private therapists, medical professionals, youth pastors, and probation officers. Working with referral sources allows us to pinpoint the youth who most need support in our community.

No, every program we offer is voluntary. Although all the youth in our mentoring programs are referred, participation in our programs is the youth and their family’s choice. Our mentors, youth, and the youth’s family commit to a year-long partnership in which the mentor and mentee spend time together every week.

Each mentoring partnership is formed after an intentional match process. Mentors and mentees are paired based on shared interests, personality traits, common values, and logistical preferences. This helps yield the greatest positive outcome for our partnerships.

There is no set wait period for a youth on our waitlist. We consistently have nearly 100 children who are waiting for a mentor between our three offices. Because our matches are based on shared interests, common values, and logistical preferences, a child may wait a month or may wait over a year. It all depends on the mentors we have coming through the screening process. The youth on our waitlist have a diverse range of wants, needs, and interests, and we are always seeking mentors to pair with them. You never know, one of our youth may be waiting for a mentor just like you!

Our greatest need is for community-based mentors. We also have a great need for school-based mentors and activity volunteers to help transport youth to monthly activities. Additionally, we have volunteer roles on our event committees, advisory councils, and Board of Directors.

This varies depending on the role. For community-based mentoring, we ask mentors to spend an average of 3 hours per week with their mentee for a calendar year. For school-based mentoring, we ask mentors to spend about 1 hour per week with their mentee in their school for a school year. We ask activity volunteers to help with at least 6 of our monthly activities in a calendar year, which averages 3-4 hours per month. Committee and Board volunteering averages 2-8 hours per month.

We ask that you be consistent in meeting with your mentee on a weekly basis, but we do recognize that there will be weeks where you or your mentee are not able to meet. In those instances, we ask that you communicate clearly to your mentee and your program coordinator about your schedule, so you can come up with a plan for how to stay in touch while away.

The main concern we hear from potential volunteers is the time commitment and how they will fit volunteering into their schedules. We like to emphasize that a main component of mentoring is showing the youth a positive lifestyle, which includes everyday activities. We encourage mentors to take their youth along for activities the volunteer is already doing, including taking a stroll around a park, going grocery shopping together, or cooking a meal at home. These experiences allow mentors and mentees to make fond memories together while also teaching the youth valuable life skills. Being a mentor doesn’t mean going to a theme park or taking the youth out for an expensive night-on-the-town every weekend. A mentor is there to integrate the child into their life and show them a positive way of life. We offer a great deal of flexibility with schedules, so how that scheduled time looks is entirely up to you and your mentee!

If you enjoy spending time with children, and you are interested in developing a relationship with a child facing challenges, helping that child succeed, and directly impacting your community, then you have what it takes to be a mentor! Anyone 18 years or older can potentially be a mentor. Every potential mentor has a lifetime of knowledge and experiences that can guide a child during pivotal times in their life. We have all our mentors go through a free, three-hour training before they are matched. If our mentors still feel unsure about their ability to mentor, we offer continuing education courses on how to become a better mentor. No specialized education is required to become a mentor!

There are 4 main reasons why someone may be ineligible to become a mentor. Our liability insurance does not allow us to disclose reasons an individual is declined, but here are the main potential reasons:

• Criminal history: A criminal record does not immediately disqualify anyone from becoming a mentor. If a mentor does have a criminal record, their case will be carefully considered based on a number of different variables. Any conviction of child abuse and/or sexual assault will automatically disqualify a potential volunteer.
• Driving record: Children’s safety is our number one priority. If a child is to be driven around by a mentor, we need to know that the mentor is safe and follows the rules of the road. Our community-based and activity volunteer roles require volunteers to transport youth, while our school-based role does not.
• Reliable transportation: A mentor must have reliable transportation to get to and from their meetings with their mentee. To be a community-based mentor, the mentor must have a valid driver’s license, proof of insurance, and their own car. While our school-based role does not require volunteers to own a car, they must have reliable transportation to be able to meet regularly with their mentee.
• General fit for volunteering in our programs: There may be factors that conflict with an individual being a good fit to volunteer in our programs. This is determined by our program staff during the screening process.

There are 5 main steps to becoming a volunteer as well as a screening fee, if you are interested in becoming a community-based mentor.

• Volunteer interview: The first step in our screening process is to meet with a Partners Program Coordinator for a personal interview. This step helps us to get to know you better for screening and matching purposes. The interview is completely confidential.
• Application and paperwork: After (or at) the interview, your Program Coordinator will have you fill out an application and other necessary paperwork. If completed digitally, this paperwork will be sent to you through the DropSign e-signature platform. We will also ask you to submit the screening fee at this time.
• References and background check: In your application, you’ll identify 4 people for us to reach out to for your references. After the interview, you’ll complete a background check and get fingerprinted. You also get access to these results! For school-based mentoring, you will need to do a separate background check and fingerprinting through the school, free of charge. We will provide you with the links to complete those.
• Volunteer training: The next step is to attend a volunteer training. This training lasts 2.5-3 hours and is typically in-person, in a group setting. It is highly interactive, and we cover a variety of topics to help you feel prepared to volunteer with us! We also recommend you attend a QPR suicide prevention training.
• Home visit* and approval: For Community-Based Mentor applicants, your Program Coordinator will set up a time to visit your home as the final step of the screening process. After this is completed, you are eligible to be considered for approval as a volunteer! *In most circumstances, applicants for other volunteer roles will not have to complete the home visit.