Mentor Center seeks 55 volunteers

Carson City's original mentoring program, The Mentor Center of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada, is entering a drive to find 55 new mentors before June.

The Mentor Center was awarded the Amachi Grant, funded from the stimulus money.

Nationwide, this grant will create 252 new jobs, which will be immediately felt in 38 states.

The Mentor Center is the only mentoring program in the state of Nevada to receive this grant, which promises money and jobs to the area in a span of three years as long as the program maintains the community partnerships and mentor quota set by the Amachi Foundation.

The Mentor Center serves area children by supporting them in a one-on-one partnership with an adult who meets with them an hour a week.

Mentoring has proven to increase academic achievement as well as deterrence from future drug use and gang participation.

The Mentor Center was first established in Carson City 10 years ago through coordination of WNC, Carson City School District, Carson City and Carson Tahoe Hospital, which gave the grant to The Boys & Girls Clubs to administer.

The new grant, along with the program's current MCP grant, will allow the program to reach out to more than 55 children who would otherwise not be serviced in the first year, with a goal of more than 350 at the end of three years.

Many of these children are children of prisoners or are otherwise affected by incarceration.

To be a mentor contact Ruth Gordon at 445-3346, or go online to mentor.

wnc.edu.