YES House brings mentor program to county

Gillette’s YES House is expanding its Impact Mentoring program into Crook County and is on the hunt for adults over the age of 21 who would like to make a difference to youth within the community.

“It’s truly such a wonderful experience, not just for the mentee but for the mentor, and for people wanting to give back to their community it can be a really great option,” says Stacy Helwig, Mentorship Coordinator.

The Impact program is well-established within the YES House, says Helwig. Her goal is now to expand the service territory so as to offer mentoring to kids across the northeast of the state.

“I am expanding services into Crook, Weston, Converse and Niobrara, just starting to encompass a lot of the northeast of Wyoming for communities that don’t have a lot of intervention services,” she says.

“We are starting to bring in different options for youth and families.”

The program launches in this county with its community-based mentoring.

“Community-based is your stereotypical big brothers and sisters,” she says. “They work individually, one-on-one, to take those kiddos out into the community and work on positive growth and development, or if there are any identified needs that that kid might need in particular, that mentor can help work with them.”

Community-based mentors meet with their matches for a minimum of an hour each week over the course of at least one year. Flexible meeting times and locations are offered, with matches encouraged to do activities within the community that help the mentee develop skills that will be essential in overcoming the issues they face in the modern world.

Helwig is also in the process of implementing the second model in this area: a school-based model at junior high and high school levels.

“We have high school-aged kids work with middle school-aged kids at a set time and on a set day,” she says. “That’s something we’re in the process of introducing and implementing right now – we’re in the very baby stages of starting this in the schools.”

Referrals are used to identify kids who could benefit from a mentor and these typically come through juvenile services, says Helwig, such as counselors and probation officers, the Department of Family Services and schools. Parents are also able to reach out if they feel their child would be able to make use of the program.

Amanda Gaskin of the Department of Family Services will represent the Impact Mentoring program in Crook and Weston counties.

“I’m really blessed to have her as part of my team and it’s nice to have a familiar face from the area to facilitate the case management,” Helwig says.

A screening process is used for the safety of the kids and mentors are also asked to follow all the policies and procedures of the program.

“It’s adults who are 21 and over, who are fully vetted and screened. We do fingerprints, background checks and all of that,” Helwig says.

“We have an intake process because we want to safeguard the kids that we work with. In keeping with the best interests of our families and youth, we make sure our volunteers are fully committed, fully vetted and have the intention of working in the best interest of the youth.”

For questions or to begin the process of volunteering, contact Gaskin at 290-0984 or via [email protected]. Application forms can be found on the yeshouse.org website.