Friends for Youth

Friends for Youth provides one-to-one mentoring and enrichment opportunities for at-risk youth, as well as technical support and products for new and emerging mentoring programs.

Why do we exist?

It is every parent’s dream to see his or her child flourish. Friends for Youth helps that dream come true. Our mission is to create quality mentoring relationships for youth who need them most. Through one-to-one relationships with caring adult volunteers, our youth participants are given opportunities and tools to reduce risk behaviors and increase positive behaviors, helping them reach their full potential. We provide extensive support services for both children and mentors, including a host of life skills workshops (to strengthen mentees’ emotional and social development), learning/academic activities, opportunities for community service, and recreational outings. Our comprehensive program is a vital link between at-risk youth and success.  Friends for Youth’s vision is to transform lives through the power of human relationships … a transformation which is not limited to the youth in our program.

What have you accomplished?

Through our Mentoring Services, Friends for Youth has matched over 1,600 youth in need with mentors who support and encourage them to reach their full potential.  We have an 88% success rate at creating long-term relationships, providing an environment which helps children stay in school and out of trouble.  One of our mentees recently shared his reflections on what Friends for Youth helped him to accomplish:

''When I was a kid I remember being utterly directionless and not being able to scrape anything better than a C out of school, frankly because I just didn’t care. I needed inspiration. There were few adults in my life. My dad lived on the East Coast and my mom was usually tied to the house taking care of my sister who is handicapped. So, there was nobody around to teach me the things I needed to know about life. I was a lonely kid with too much time on my hands and no idea what to do with it. Sounds like a good recipe for trouble, eh? Then I met my mentor. Peter gave me many things. He gave me his time and his friendship, but most of all he inspired me and gave the first glimpses of what I could do with my life. Peter did things my own father never did, he threw a baseball with me, he took me out for a bike ride, he took me out to the movies, all the time talking to me and passing on his dreams and ideas. He helped me develop my own dreams. I always knew that Peter got involved with Friends for Youth to give part of himself to his community. That is a value that lies deep within me now; it is why I chose to devote my life to medicine. Now, I am 29 and two years away from being a doctor. As a matter of fact I am 3rd in my class at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. My mentor and Friends for Youth had a lot to do with how I got here. Friends for Youth is a wonderful program.''

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