PBS.org
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1st September 2020
American Graduate: Let's Make it Happen | PBS
Goodwill’s GoodGuides Program Featured on PBS’s “American Graduate Day”.
Goodwill’s GoodGuides Program was among several mentoring success stories featured on PBS’s “American Graduate Day” broadcast on Saturday, October 3.
• 1 in 7 young people between the ages of 10 and 18 will run away
• 75 percent percent of homeless or runaway youth have dropped out or will drop out of school
• Before the age of 18, 9 out of 10 high school students where seen to have met the criteria for addiction and had already started drinking, smoking, and illicit or prescription drugs.
• At schools, teachers claim that only 27% of their staff are trained to identify and respond to the needs of at-risk youth, while below 40% of them think that the school’s has an effective prevention efforts
Goodwill Dallas GoodGuides Program
Many youth in our community need and want a caring adult mentor to provide the nurturing, stability, and positive role-modeling. Without these “growing up” essentials, youth face some daunting challenges. Unprepared for adulthood and independence, at-risk youth have poor outcomes – incarceration, homelessness, unintended pregnancy, interrupted education, and significant mental health problems.
Research consistently shows that at-risk teens in formal mentoring programs benefit academically and socially and have lower rates of substance abuse and delinquency than their non-mentored peers. Down the road, the value of a mentor’s commitment can be seen in young adults who make better choices and live more productive and happier lives.
On a national level, mentees enrolled in a youth mentorship program were 46% less likely than their peers without mentors to initiate drug use. Mentees are 2.5 times more likely to be confident in their ability to be successful at school and 3 times less likely to suffer peer pressure related anxiety, such as worrying about what other children think or say about them.
