Austin Secures Innovative 'Friends Of The Children' Mentoring Program

AUSTIN, TX — Officials on Tuesday unveiled the Austin chapter of Friends of the Children — a nonprofit that will provide vulnerable East Austin children with professional mentors from kindergarten through high school graduation.

Austin becomes the first city in Texas to open a Friends of the Children chapter, with other chapters announced in Central Oregon; Charlotte, N.C.; Los Angeles; and an expansion in Boston. The chapters were opened by virtue of a fundraising drive with matching grants, including a local campaign that raised $1.7 million toward the aim of securing the chapter.

All told, $2.5 million was raised to open the Austin Friends of the Children chapter, according to the program's officials. Terri Sorensen, president of Portland, Ore.-based Friends of the Children, said the expansion into Austin comes at a critical moment given myriad challenges faced by children targeted by the program.

“They are at greater risk for dropping out of school, substance abuse, incarceration and teen parenting," Sorensen said in a prepared statement. "Research has shown the most important factor for building resiliency in children facing the highest risks is a long-term, consistent relationship with a caring adult. Thanks to the incredible generosity and long-term vision of the Austin community, we can now provide that to hundreds more children in East Austin.”

Charity began at home, culminating in local chapter

The opening of the local chapter is the culmination of a brisk fundraising drive that alerted Friends of the Children officials of the keen interest in having such a chapter open in Austin, Sorensen told Patch in a telephone interview before Tuesday's announcement. In a mere three months, volunteers dubbed "champions" raised more than $1.7 million from 50 individuals, families and businesses to bring the Friends of the Children model to Austin with matching federal funds.

Given the model's dynamics and ambitious scope, it's little wonder there was so much local interest to adopt it here. Among its proven outcomes, is a 93 percent rate of youth avoidance in the juvenile justice system, an 83 percent passage rate in high school graduation, and 98 percent avoidance in entering into early parenting. The program's uniqueness in offering work to professional, salaried mentors engaged with the targeted children for the long term was another draw in pursuing the model for Austin.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler added his voice in welcoming the chapter to the city: “The inequities and challenges East Austin residents faces are well documented,” he said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to support a program that will create opportunity for children living in this community by equipping them with the tools they need to succeed in school and become future leaders for our city.”

To qualify for the matching grant, local champions needed to raise at least three years of seed capital from diverse funding sources. Austin exceeded that goal, raising the majority of their funding from individual donors – including more than $650,000 from individuals and families of Vista Equity Partners.

Rachel Arnold, founding board chair of the Austin chapter and senior vice president of Vista Equity Partners, expounded on the uniqueness of the program.

“What sets Friends of the Children apart is their ambitious and powerful mission, reinforced by a proven methodology deeply rooted in performance management and technology,” she said. “This is what captured the hearts and minds of our early supporters. As an investor, I was inspired by the impact: every $1 invested in the Friends of the Children model returns $7 in reduced social costs to the community – not to mention the immeasurable opportunity to change hundreds of lives.”

Searching for the most vulnerable among Austin's schoolchildren

The Friends of the Children model in Austin will focus on identifying children facing the highest risks living in the East Austin Crescent. In the first year, enrollment in the program will focus on kindergarten students at Rodriguez, Widen and Overton Elementary schools. To ensure early success and sustainability, the program will start by employing four Friends and serving 32 youth in its first year, officials said.

By year five, the goal is to serve more than 200 youth, committing to each them for 12.5 years. From that original cohort, officials envision 400 to 500 children having been served by the end of 10 to 12 years, Sorenson told Patch in a prior telephone interview.

As for the mentors, Sorensen said the average volunteer stays for one year to 18 months. But for the most vulnerable children, program officials ask would-be mentors for a three-year commitment contingent on their being hired, she said. The average length of stay for a typical mentor is seven years, she added. As if the commitment as to tenure weren't enough to yield a vested interest, mentors also are subject to performance reviews after certain periods of time interacting with the children termed "friends" in the program's nomenclature.

"They're incredible people," Sorensen said of the mentors. "They typically have a college degree and two to three years' experience working with vulnerable children. Half are men, half are woman, and they're racially and ethnically diverse. They have stories similar to the kids," she added.

(Pictured: Terri Sorensen)

Their long-term presence as mentors will telegraph to the targeted children that they have someone rooting them on, helping them throughout their academic experience and assisting them with their studies along the way, Sorensen suggested.

"Our kids have so many people who are often letting them down," Sorensen said. "Their parents or families sometimes don't have enough to pay rent. They have very little stability in their lives. By taking mentors out of the volunteer mode and make them salaried, we're able to hire incredible people."

Nancy Pollard tapped as founding executive director of Austin chapter

Nancy Pollard has been tapped as the founding executive director of Friends of the Children-Austin. In reflecting on her new role, she was still basking in the afterglow of seeing the community galvanized in the common goal of bringing the program to Austin.

“It was inspirational to see the community rise to the challenge and help make Austin a great place to grow up in,” Pollard said in a statement. “This program can make that vision a reality – not just for kids who have lots of support in their lives, but for kids who otherwise experience significant challenges.”

In a separate telephone interview prior to the official announcement of the program's Austin expansion, Pollard was palpably excited about her new charge. She envisioned the program making a measurable impact on the lives of the children it will serve.

"We can't change all of these children's circumstances, but can teach them to be resilient in their circumstances," Pollard, until now a stay-at-home mom after having worked as a trust and estates lawyer, explained. "I am sincerely excited and particularly energized by the level of support we've been given by the local non profits and donors, and also excited about the schools we'll be working with."

The announcement of the program's expansion took place in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday at the AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment and Policy. The ceremony included a screening of the public television documentary “Visionaries,” with a 2018 season episode featuring Friends of the Children, sponsored by Portland-based Cambia Health Foundation. The viewing was followed by a short panel discussion with Friends of the Children Founder Duncan Campbell, MENTOR Chief Executive Officer David Shapiro, and others.

Friends of the Children previously opened a new chapter in San Francisco and doubled enrollment in Seattle in early 2017. Current sites include Boston, MA; Harlem and South Bronx, NY; Portland, Gresham, and Klamath Falls, OR; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Tampa Bay, FL; and Cornwall, UK.

Austin chapter secured just in the nick of time

While the story of the local expansion and past work by Friends of the Children is suffused with optimism and endless potential, the broader narrative arc is bittersweet in its denouement. In achieving a funded model, Austin could be among the last municipalities so honored given recent federal cuts to national funding sources — particularly at the Corporation for National and Community Service federal agency.

Major reductions in the nation's public service programs emerged as part of Donald Trump's initial budget proposal, prompting Congress to quietly de-fund the Social Innovation Fund from which Friends of the Children has derived its matching funds for some 20 years now. The federal fund shuttered in May to little notice outside the nonprofit world had a budget of $50 million to provide grants to social service organizations assisting the nation's poorest citizens.

But Austin got its funding in — and just in the nick of time — prior to the federal de-funding. And by the end of a decades' worth of service or thereabouts, some 500 local children will have been the richer for this inadvertently exquisite and fortuitous timing.

About Friends of the Children (provided text):

Friends of the Children is a national nonprofit based in Portland, OR with the mission of breaking the cycle of generational poverty by giving the most vulnerable children the ability to create a new story. We provide our children a long-term, salaried, professional mentor, who we call a Friend, from kindergarten through school high graduation, 12.5 years–no matter what. Our Friends support and guide our children in becoming healthy and contributing members in their communities. Our successful model is now in 14 locations, including four sites in Oregon (Portland, Gresham, Klamath Falls and Central Oregon); Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Harlem and the South Bronx, NY; Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Tampa Bay, FL; and Cornwall, United Kingdom. Friends of the Children has been named the Most Admired Nonprofit in Oregon in 2016 and 2015 by the Portland Business Journal. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or visit friendsofthechildren.org.

About The Corporation for National and Community Service (provided text):

The Corporation for National and Community Service is the federal agency for volunteering, service, and civic engagement. The agency engages millions of Americans in citizen service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the nation's volunteering and service efforts. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

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>>> All images provided by Friends of the Children