MENTORING PROGRAM HELPS GUIDE YOUTH

Jason, left, listened to Kathy Nenninger, general manager at the Pasta House Co., along with Jeff. Both Jason and Jeff went to work at the restaurant as part of the Missouri Mentoring Partnership Program.

Some youths don't have a reliable, responsible adult in their lives. Maybe they've bounced around between foster homes or have been in trouble with the law and aren't getting what they need from home.

The state-funded Missouri Mentoring Partnership tries to hook up troubled 16-to-22-year-olds with jobs and a responsible adult at the job to give them guidance.

Take David, for example. Marge Sullivan, coordinator of the partnership for Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, describes him as "a good kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Because she doesn't want to reveal anyone's identity, she won't say what crime he committed.

But whatever David -- not his real name -- did, he became a ward of the Missouri Division of Youth Services. He was in deep trouble.

His juvenile officer referred him to the Missouri Mentoring Partnership.

An area grocery decided to take a chance on him. They gave him a job and assigned two department managers to watch over him.

The manager described him as "someone with low self-esteem ... a person who needs a lot of encouragement."

Youths like David need to know they can succeed legally and honestly, and "they are worth something to society, that there are people who care about them," the manager said.

For example, the manager found David had a flair for designing and building displays. So he and other supervisors praised his work and backed it up by giving him the responsibility for displays, and by praising him when he did well.

"He takes a lot of pride in it," the manager said.

The manager said it was important for the store's management to show David that it was interested in him as a person.

"What I tried to work on is self-esteem," the manager said. "We ask him how things are going in his life and let him know that if he needs a helping hand he doesn't have to turn to his old friends."

David talked with his employers about his future. When he decided to enlist in the Army, the store gave him time off for his physicals. He will enter the service shortly.

Sullivan regards David as one of the program's success stories.

They don't all work out so well. One local employer contacted for the story -- a warehouse and manufacturing company -- said the young man placed there was a successful employee for a year, but stopped showing up for work last week.

Sullivan doesn't expect every single referral she makes to work out. But she believes they all deserve a chance, and the successes justify the program. She said some of the youths come from homes where no one works, "they are people who have no concept of time because they had to meet it. You woke up when you woke up."

Every youth in the program was referred there by either the Division of Youth Services -- meaning they were prosecuted for something under the juvenile code -- or by the Division of Family Services. Family Services takes care of children who are victims of abuse or neglect, or status offenders like runaways and truants. Many of them were in foster care.

One of the spurs for developing the program came from a study made in the 1980s of the homeless in New York, said Gary Thurman, assistant area director of the Missouri Division of Family Services in Cape Girardeau. The researchers found that "a large percentage had aged out of the foster-care system in New York. They had no transitional help."

Thurman said the state started Missouri Mentoring Partnership so that some youths will develop the skills to function independently when they are older.

Sullivan said a job, even for 16-year-olds, can be the anchor that keeps them grounded. Under the program, no clients without high-school diplomas can participate without working toward a high-school diploma -- either in high school or through a G.E.D.

"Lots of times that job and the opportunity to make spending money are enough motivation to keep them in school," Sullivan said.

When Sullivan gets referrals, she interviews them and goes over their records looking for a job that fits them. Sullivan said that sometimes means trying them at two or three jobs before she finds one that sticks.

The logistics of pairing an applicant with a job can be daunting -- many applicants have no phone and no car, and some live in remote parts of the county.

Just last week, she arranged a job interview for a client who goes to high school and wants a summer job to save for college. He doesn't have a car or phone, so he called her from school.

"I need to pick you up sweetie at 8," she said. "You need to be dressed nicely and showered. I know you will, you always dress sharply."

She then told him she'd put together a resume and asked him the exact names of some honors he'd won at school.

Her job doesn't end with the referral. Sullivan meets with the clients regularly and keeps tabs, sometimes giving the client warnings when they are in trouble and offering advice on how to improve.

The program has been in Southeast Missouri for less than three years, and its clients number only in the dozens. At any given time, there are 15 to 25 youths in the program, Thurman said.

The program has an annual budget of $52,240.

"If we can develop 25 or 30 youths a year in a good solid work experience, it's going to pay for itself many times over," Thurman said.