Kettle Kinship Youth Mentoring Program of Pine County receives 2008 Touchstone Energy Community Award
BRAHAM, MN-The Kettle Kinship
Youth Mentoring Program of Pine County has built a framework for improving the lives of local youth and building stronger communities.
East Central Energy (ECE) recently recognized that accomplishment by selecting the organization as its 2008 Touchstone Energy Community
Award winner.
“Kettle Kinship is a wonderful example of citizens working together to create a brighter future for their communities
by supporting and inspiring their youth,” said ECE Public Relations Representative Cindy Rolain. “Establishing successful mentoring
matches between caring adults and young people will have a lasting impact on our communities. ECE highly values commitment to community,
and that is what Kettle Kinship is all about.”
The organization began in northern Pine County in 2003. It is now expanding its
outreach south to Pine City and working with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to add a mentoring component to the Band’s pre-apprenticeship
job skills training program. A school-based mentoring program is being piloted at East Central Schools in Sandstone.
Children
are referred to the Kettle Kinship program by school staff, pastors, social services employees, doctors and other caring adults. Parents
may also request a mentor for their child, and the program has a waiting list of youth. Mentors are in short supply, and Laurie Volk,
an AmeriCorps volunteer with Kettle Kinship, has developed the Kinship Outreach Partners to address that need.
“We are
working to get people in churches, businesses and organizations to be the ‘bridge’ that connects supportive adult volunteers to interested
local youth,” Volk said. She added that the program strives to find a mentor who lives in the same community as the child, to keep
driving to a minimum.
Mentors are interviewed, their backgrounds are screened, and they receive training. They are asked to
spend one hour per week for one year with the child they are mentoring. “We stress no-cost, low-cost activities with emphasis on the
time spent together,” said Kettle Kinship Director Shawn Jansen.
The program offers occasional one-day events for the young people
who are waiting for a mentor. A visit to the Audubon Center open house was a recent activity.
“Snow birds, or those who can’t
commit to mentoring once a week, can help out by being a mentor for a day. There is no cost, just the opportunity to have fun with
the kids,” Jansen said.
As a Touchstone Energy cooperative, ECE is part of a national alliance of more than 600 electric cooperatives
that adheres to the values of integrity, accountability, innovation and commitment to community. As ECE’s Touchstone Energy Community
Award winner, Kettle Kinship will receive a plaque and a $500 cash award. The organization will contend for the statewide Touchstone
Energy Community Award, which has a cash prize of $1,000.
East Central Energy www.eastcentralenergy.com is a member-owned electric
cooperative that serves more than 57,000 homes, farms and businesses in east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. ECE provides
electricity, Internet and long distance services, as well as community and business development and environmental services.