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One of the most unique challenges for mentoring ministries in America is the idea of separation of Church and State. It's this idea that prevents most mentors from actively sharing the gospel with their mentee while at school and can prove to be a hurdle for the organizations they volunteer with. Kids Hope USA, however, has found a solution to that challenge. Zach is joined by Dr. Karen Pearson, the President of Kids Hope USA, to discuss what they do, how they do it on such a small budget, and how they manage to get around the idea of separation of Church and State while simultaneously CONNECTING the Church and State in a mentoring relationship.
Show Notes
One of the most unique challenges for mentoring ministries in America is the idea of separation of Church and State. It's this idea that prevents most mentors from actively sharing the gospel with their mentee while at school and can prove to be a hurdle for the organizations they volunteer with. Kids Hope USA, however, has found a solution to that challenge. Zach is joined by Dr. Karen Pearson, the President of Kids Hope USA, to discuss what they do, how they do it on such a small budget, and how they manage to get around the idea of separation of Church and State while simultaneously CONNECTING the Church and State in a mentoring relationship.
Check out Kids Hope:
https://kidshopeusa.org
info@kidshopeusa.org
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Check out Kids Hope:
https://kidshopeusa.org
info@kidshopeusa.org
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Hey. If you didn't know, I, Zach Garza, have teamed up with the Mentoring Alliance. It's our vision to mobilize godly people into the lives of kids and family to do 2 things, provide tangible help and eternal hope. Currently, we are in East Texas and Central Texas, but we want to grow. We have full time jobs available.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking for a job in the mentoring field, please reach out to us. We also have part time staff jobs available. If you're a college student or know of any college students who are looking for summertime jobs, we're doing these summer camps down in East Texas. They're amazing. Come on down to Tyler.
Speaker 2:Spend a summer with us. Help kids. Get to know our organization. Find some friends. It's a great thing.
Speaker 2:So full time jobs for anyone, part time jobs, specifically kind of for college students. But go to our website, the mentoring alliance.com. Go to the upper right hand corner. Click that working with you tab and all the information that you need is there. Feel free to reach out to me or go to our website, social media, all that good stuff to learn more about the Mentoring Alliance.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. You can mentor. Mentors and mentoring leaders, Zach Ardo here with the You Can Mentor podcast. I got 3 things that I would like to ask of you today. Number 1, if you are a mentoring organization and you would like to be on our podcast or learn more about the best practices of mentoring, please reach out to us, www.ukanmentor.com.
Speaker 2:You can send us an email, zach@ukanmentor.com, or stephen, it's withaph@youcanmentor.com. You can also find us on social media. Give us that DM and we'll get back to you. We just wanna get to know you and we wanna learn more about what you're doing in your communities to advance mentoring. And we believe that interaction leads to innovation.
Speaker 2:So let's work together and advance the kingdom through mentoring. Number 2, if you know of someone who would benefit from the You Can Mentor podcast, please share our podcast, share our information with them. That would be super helpful. And then lastly, if you could rate our podcast on Apple Podcasts, give us that 5 star. It will help spread the word about mentoring and, You Can Mentor podcast.
Speaker 2:Because we really do want every mentoring org in America who is trying to make disciples through mentoring to know about us. We wanna get to know about them so we can learn from them and work together to help kids reach their full potential. So that's what I got. Please do those things. Reach out to us, share and rate.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you. You can mentor. Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast, Zach Harza. Zach Carza? Did I just miss mispronounce my name?
Speaker 2:Oh, no. Zach Garza here with Karen Pearson. She is the is it executive director or CEO?
Speaker 3:President.
Speaker 2:Oh, president. Oh my gosh. Even more fancy. President of Kids Hope USA, and y'all are located all across America, but specifically, you office up north. Isn't that correct?
Speaker 3:Yep. So our national support office is in Holland, Zealand, Michigan, right on the west coast of Michigan, just west of Grand Rapids. But yeah. And that's where we were founded here in West Michigan, but we do praise God that we have programs in 40 different states. So it's it's good to see this ministry that has expanded.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's so awesome. I haven't been to 40 states, so you're a little bit ahead of me. But that's okay, Karen. That's okay.
Speaker 2:Holland, Zealand. I've never heard of that place.
Speaker 3:Well, it's 2 sort of sister cities, Holland, Michigan and, you know, sort of our our neighbor, nearest neighbor, Zealand, Michigan. Okay.
Speaker 2:Cool. Cool.
Speaker 3:Holland is famous for tulip time, which we just had a few weeks ago in May, not surprisingly, given our name Holland. And there are millions of tulips every year and lots and lots of visitors that come for tulip time. So
Speaker 2:Well, that sounds absolutely fantastic. Per perhaps next year, I can come up to Holland, Zeeland, Michigan and enjoy a tulip with you.
Speaker 3:That'd be great. I'd love it. That'd be fantastic.
Speaker 2:Alright. Great. Well, let's talk about what it is that you do because this is a mentoring podcast and you mentor. So people didn't tune in to hear us talk about tulips, Karen. So let's get after it.
Speaker 2:So I I don't know how I found out about Kids Hope USA, but I did. And I went on your website and I talked to some of your people. And, man, what you guys are up to is just tremendous. I love it. And so if you don't mind, can you just kinda share with us what is Kids Hope USA and tell us what you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. So kids at Kids Hope USA, we believe that all kids matter to Jesus, and that's really what all of our work. And as an organization, we connect churches with their neighborhood elementary schools. In some cases, some middle schools, and we can get into that later.
Speaker 3:But really at our core, we are connecting a local church with its neighborhood elementary school. And we are equipping that church through a director to mobilize volunteers from that church to go into the school. We are a school based mentoring program. So those volunteers once a week go to the school, meet with 1 child for an hour, once a week during the school year. And it's a very simple very simple, model, but a very powerful model of forming these life changing relationships one at a time.
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay. So that is man, there are so many questions that I have just from that little tiny excerpt that you just gave us. So your mission is, you guys and this is what I love, you you build life changing relationships one at a time, 1 child, 1 hour, 1 church, 1 school. So how did this start?
Speaker 2:And
Speaker 3:So our
Speaker 2:win and all of that good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. For sure. And I'll keep this, you know, somewhat tight, and you can ask for questions, you know, further if you want to. But back in the early nineties, an incredibly just really visionary leader, whose name is doctor Virgil Galkar, was really asking some pretty important and profound questions, one of which was what is the greatest need of America's children?
Speaker 3:And he sort of, you know, went and spoke with educators and health care providers and local, you know, local law enforcement and really just made kind of this community wide survey about America's children's needs. And he heard something over and over and over again, which was that children need relationships, consistent relationships with adults And that it is that more than some of their other basic needs Obviously kids do have lots of needs, but the greatest need was this relational void And so Virgil thought to himself well, we have churches who gather on Sunday mornings and are really looking for ways to connect to their communities. So why don't we mobilize people from our churches to go into those schools to meet, again, just 1 hour a week, one child. It's all about that that one, one on one with 1 child, where that school really forms that partnership with the the excuse me, the church forms the partnership with the school. So he kind of, you know, mentioned this idea to a few pastors and churches in this area, and in 1995, there were 3 incredibly brave churches that stepped up and said, sure, let's give this a go.
Speaker 3:And those churches each identified a director, and to this day, the Kids Hope USA program director at a church is really the glue that holds the program together. That person receives a lot of training, and and ultimately, that person really provides that key connection point between the church and the school. So those 3 churches said, sure, we'll do this, and they reached out to, their local neighborhood schools. And those, again, those kind of brave principals said, sure, we'll give this a try. And and that was the the beginning of of the kids hope USA mentoring program But something that was quickly added that I think your listeners, will appreciate which has since become an absolute integral part of our program Is that one of the one of the directors of these original three churches called Virgil and said, Virgil, I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 3:This is this is kinda tough stuff. Our mentors are encountering children with some pretty significant challenges in their lives, and I'm not sure that our mentors are really feeling sort of equipped and supported to to do this. I really think we need to add some intentional prayer. And as the story goes, Virgil said, Oh, of course prayer is very, very important. We'll just have the whole church pray.
Speaker 3:You know? And this director kind of gently said, You know, I don't know that that's really intentional enough, Virgil. So the 2 of them actually decided that for every mentor and student pair, there would be a behind the scenes prayer partner, a specific person praying for that pair, and that was kind of the birth of the prayer partner. And it is an absolutely essential part of our ministry to have somebody who's again, this person doesn't meet with the child, this person doesn't go to the school, but this person knows what time that student and mentor are gonna be meeting, and they commit to praying at that time and throughout the week. But I have a prayer partner.
Speaker 3:I send her an email every week. She and I connect. She sometimes sends me a note right on Tuesday morning. I know you're gonna be at the school today meeting with your your student. I'm praying for you.
Speaker 3:And that is just an incredibly important part of the ministry. So ever since those first three programs, the director, and they coordinate these volunteer mentors and the prayer partners And on the school end, SAC, we really work very closely with the folks at the school who are the ones who identify and select and refer the students. So we are counting on that school community to think about which of those students in those various classrooms are, would it be most beneficial for them to have this one on one relationship with the mentor? And the school handles all the permission slips and handles all the scheduling and all of that on the school's end so that the church is getting the mentors ready, identifying those prayer partners. The school is working the children and, you know, the school mechanics, and that's where the magic happens then when the mentors go into the school.
Speaker 2:Wow, Karen. That's awesome. There's a lot there. I I do I do love the intentional prayer piece. You're right.
Speaker 2:That's a gem. Yeah. So if I'm hearing you correctly, you guys identify in elementary school. Mhmm. So kinder through 5th grade, kinder through 6th grade ish, and then you guys identify a church that wants to partner with that elementary school, and the church provides a director and volunteer mentors and volunteer prayer partners.
Speaker 3:Got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then they go into the school and they build relationships with these kiddos, and they pray for them, And they make them feel seen. They make them feel heard. And they make them feel valued every week.
Speaker 3:Every week.
Speaker 2:Man, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:For the whole school year.
Speaker 2:For the whole school year. And Yep. I'm assuming that there have been some mentor mentee pairs who have been together 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 years. Right?
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely. And that's one of the things that really, I think, can be very special about the Kids Hope USA sort of mentoring relationship, is that for many of our students, that relationship extends not just into the second, but sometimes as you say the 3rd, 4th, 5th year, and that's where also I mentioned middle schools, and while we do not start relationships in middle school, if the mentor and the student decide that they would like to continue that relationship into the middle school, then sometimes we can figure out, you know, a time for them to meet, maybe it's right at the beginning of the school day or over lunch, you know, whatever, however the middle school can work that out. But in in some cases, those relationships extend into middle school. But it is certainly the case that that that trust, that that relational piece that keeps building as the as the student grows, as the student learns, as the mentor gets to know them more more completely is just really part of the fun and part of the, I think, the real meaning that happens over time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. So tell me how did your path cross with Kids Hope USA?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my story with Kids Hope USA starts, gosh, almost probably 12, 13 years ago when I was sitting in church. Here in Holland, Michigan, I had just my husband and I were relatively newly married and, we had 2 very little children, and I was sitting at church, and a woman, the the program director at our church got up, as she did often, and was providing a little update on the Kids Hope USA program, and said very boldly. She said, look, I need a few more mentors. Teachers throughout the school year continue to to make referrals, and I need some more mentors.
Speaker 3:And I will never forget just sitting in church and and having sort of this, the the Holy Spirit sort of bring to my mind all of the people in my life, or at least many of them, that had mentored me. Right? All the way from when I was a child, and I thought to myself, oh my goodness. She's asking for 1 hour a week. Of course, I can do that.
Speaker 3:You know? That is absolutely something that I could do, and I would love to do that. And so I went right up to her after after church and said, well, you just found one more mentor if you'll have me. And, you know, some people, Zach, thought I was a little, oh, I don't know, maybe a little impractical. Like, you have 2 kids.
Speaker 3:You mean, you're gonna pay a babysitter so you can go build a relationship with a kid who's not your own? I mean, that seems a little, I don't know, maybe complicated. And, you know, I I didn't think so at all. And the Lord made it possible for me that year not to miss one single time with my student due to like a sick kid or, you know, trouble with a babysitter, it just never happened. And that young girl, she didn't she her family moved away after that year, so she and I did not continue, but it it just gave me a dose of this ministry that obviously I've never forgotten, and it was great.
Speaker 3:So I I did serve as a mentor, and yeah, my my path then came to Kids Hope USA after I had been serving in a number of leadership roles in higher education. I served for many years in various roles at Hope College here in Holland, Michigan, a very special place, one that I absolutely love. But someone reached out to me and said, you know, Karen, the leadership role of Kids Hope USA is open. And this person said to me, you know, you have a lot of leadership experience. You have education experience.
Speaker 3:You have kind of this outreach and kind of ministry connection and a and a strong faith connection. I think you should consider this. And I was at the time open to God's leading and sort of willing to make a change, and it has been just fantastic. And so I joined Kids Hope just 3 years ago. I just had my, 3 year anniversary on June 3rd, 2019 when I joined the organization.
Speaker 3:And, you know, people often say, gosh, Karen. You you joined at such a tricky time. If you'd known, you know, 8 months later, we'd all locked down for a pandemic. And, yes, it has been a difficult period with schools and churches, and I don't know, you know, if you wanna talk about that at all, but it has been a really, really challenging couple of years for an organization like like ours. I think aside from health care workers and the health whole health care system, I think churches and schools in particular have been hit exceptionally hard by the pandemic.
Speaker 3:And it has meant that, you know, a ministry like ours has really, yeah, really faced some pretty, you know, steep steep headwinds in making sure that our mentors and students can stay connected. But Zach, we have the most committed directors. We have principals who know how important these volunteers are. We have volunteers who themselves are in this for the long haul. And I have just seen over and over again the the Lord.
Speaker 3:You know, maybe the door is closed, but a window opens. And in ways in which this pandemic has certainly brought challenge but has also brought incredible blessings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. I would think today more than ever, kids need relationships. And so I'm just so thankful for the work that you guys are doing. You are you're in over a 1000 schools. Isn't that correct?
Speaker 3:That is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And if you're in a 1000 schools, then that means that you are mentoring a lot more than just a 1000 kids. So, and you guys talked about how you're in 40 different states. So one of the things that I'm excited about having you guys on our podcast is if there's anyone who is paying attention to what we're talking about, if you are hearing this and you're saying, man, that's that's such a cool idea. I go to a church and I'm involved with a school.
Speaker 2:There's an opportunity for you guys to connect, and perhaps Kids Hope can expand through some people tuning in to our podcast. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. We would love that. And it is true. I mean, I I am I'm so thankful every single day for our faithful churches that serve students.
Speaker 3:So like you said, we've got over a 1000 church school partnerships. We have most of our church school partnerships are that model, 1 church, 1 school. We actually have a number of large churches that actually serve more than one school. And we have a an incredible church in Arlington, Texas, Fielder Church, and Fielder Church has set a goal for their entire congregation to have 500 mentors serving in 10 different schools. So sort of on average, 50 mentors in a school, and that is huge.
Speaker 3:And they're well more than halfway there, so, you know, that's enormous. We also have many, many small churches. I absolutely love the story of a small church here in Northern Michigan that really only has about 50 or 60 people. And, Zach, they have, between mentors and prayer partners, they have about 3 quarters of their entire congregation investing in their Kids Hope USA partnership with their school because that is who they are. Their pastor says that kind of defines us.
Speaker 3:It's like in our DNA. So if you're not mentoring, you're a prayer partner and and, you know, and helping with that school. So, you know, we've got very small churches, and we've got huge churches. And and in some cases, as I said, some churches serve more than one school. It's also the case that in some cases, more than one church can serve a single school.
Speaker 3:So even in the program that I'm in, we have 2 churches that work together in partnership to serve a school. So the vast majority of our programs are still 1 church, 1 school, but we do have some some variation there, again, depending on the needs of the school and depending on what the church has to offer.
Speaker 2:Sure. I'm just gonna ask you just a bunch of kinda kinda short specific questions about you all just because as a former educator and as someone who does mentoring and as someone who has been on staff at a church, you're just you're just hitting all of my buttons right now. So tell me how how you guys get over the church in school conundrum.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And by that, do you mean kind of the separation of church and state?
Speaker 2:Yes. That is a more exact term.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, we we pledged to the school. We absolutely pledged to the school that because we're largely in public schools
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:We pledged that our mentors will strictly abide by the separation of church and state, And that is something that is very, very important. It is absolutely key to build trust with the administrators. So I I would say faithfulness, we've gotta have our mentors show up every single week. That is absolutely key. For someone to say they want to mentor one of these kids and then be, you know, not faithful does actually more harm than if they had never gotten a mentor before.
Speaker 3:So faithfulness and consistency is absolutely key. That's one. The second is that you we we really need to respect. We are visitors in the school, so we respect the the the boundaries of of church and state. Now that's where, again, I think the prayer partner comes in.
Speaker 3:And this, again, is forming a relationship. It's not that we can't bring the gospel message with us, and it's not that we can't shine the light of Christ in that school. I absolutely think we are. And God is in those schools already. We're joining him in that work in the schools already.
Speaker 3:But what we do need to do is we need to be good guests, and we need to be trustworthy about that. I know you said short, but it's super important that we that we abide by that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. So so how how do you handle if a kid starts talking about his faith, or is there an opportunity for a mentor and a mentee to spend time outside of the school day? Or tell me some more about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, the separation of church and state does restrict what the mentor can say. But it's certainly if the child opens the door to a conversation, then the mentor can maybe ask another question. Maybe, you know, listen We always have to be cautious, but I certainly think and especially as you just mentioned a while ago Sometimes if that relationship has been gone, you know, my 2nd year, my 3rd year, my 4th year, then you might begin to both be more mature and also just open up to a richer dialogue about more personal things. When you ask about a mentor meeting outside the the school, we we don't recommend sort of these kind of 1 on 1 meetings outside the school, but there are a few times, throughout the year where there might be Events hosted like a bowling party or even sometimes like an ice cream social being held at the school or at the church.
Speaker 3:Right now, as we wrap up the year, it's often the case that a church will host kind of an end of the year celebration. And if a family or guardian is invited to come to the church, then for a pastor to offer a welcome, for the pastor to offer a prayer, for the pastor to offer kind of an introduction about why their church is serving the school gently and respectfully, but you know, your guests here at our church, so then we have an opportunity to to share a little bit about us. The last thing I'll mention since we're right on the cusp of summer vacation is many churches help sponsor the students from their Kids Hope USA program to attend perhaps a VBS program or maybe even a summer camp opportunity. So there there are opportunities for those kids to to get to know the church a little bit better and to get to know and to have a more direct experience with the gospel message. And there are so many wonderful examples.
Speaker 3:We just got a note a few months ago of a young student who, you know, had a mentor. And, now this young student is now 16 or 17 years old and got baptized and wanted to invite her mentor to the baptism, and the mentor, of course, went. And it was just both a joyous reunion and an opportunity really to come together now as as, brothers and sisters in Christ at that baptism. So we certainly do hear examples of families and students who who become part of the church and and also become, you know, Christ followers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think that's so fascinating. Just whenever I hear all of that, Karen, I hear y'all are going after the long game. Y'all are building relationships, and you're faithfully showing up, and you're showing honor. You're showing respect.
Speaker 2:You are being a light to that school. You're being a light to the community. And you're saying, okay, lord. While we can't openly proclaim the gospel in schools, we're gonna do our best to act like Christ to this school. And we're gonna trust you, lord, that you're gonna open up a door if you see fit.
Speaker 2:And if it's not us, that's okay because we might toss the seed and someone else might come and they might water the seed, and then someone else might get to watch that seed turn into fruit. And that's what I love about the power of prayer is you guys are saying, while while we can't preach the gospel in the schools, we sure as sure as heck. Can I say that? Yeah. We are going to pray for this kid.
Speaker 2:We're gonna pray for this relationship that somehow, someway, the lord's going to get a hold of this kid's heart. And whenever you pray, powerful things happen because the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Yeah. And so that is that is you've you've kinda got you've kinda got me on tilt right now just because being honest, the younger me would have said, if you're not preaching the gospel in schools, then you're wasting your time. The older me says, God is so much bigger than that.
Speaker 2:And so, fantastic job of you guys just, being open and honest with, hey, our job is to be faithful. Our job is to love our neighbor, to be good neighbors, to respect, to show honor, and then we're gonna trust that the lord's gonna take care of it. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. I yep. You said it beautifully. You're right.
Speaker 3:I think it's it's love. I think it's, the power of relationship. I mean, I think that's exactly what Jesus did, and they're just example after example in the Bible of the importance of a relationship going before words, maybe, or proclamation, And, we absolutely believe. I will say, to be fair, there are definitely some people that hear about Kids Hope USA and kind of like your younger self, they're like, well, that sounds, you know, sounds maybe like church white or, you know, evangelism light. And I I fully re respect that.
Speaker 3:You know, Kids Hope USA might not be the program for every church or for every, you know, for, yeah, for every ministry. But I I would say that, man, when you talk to when you talk to pastors about the kinda commitment that it it it really raises the bar for commitments at at churches. People, when we ask mentors, Zach, 8 out of 10 of our mentors say that serving as a Kids Hope USA member mentor draws them closer to their faith and draws them closer to their congregation. It anchors them in their neighborhood. It it it's a Monday through Friday opportunity to be exactly who God calls us to be.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, Sunday morning is really important, but this is the church being the church Monday through Friday in just an exceptionally tangible, powerful way. And pastors and and congregations love that.
Speaker 2:For sure. And I I would think that it's a win for the church. The church is getting to make disciples. The church is teaching their the people that attend their church just the importance of serving the community, the importance of the youth, the importance of teaching a kid just how to feel loved, how to feel valued, things like that. It's a call for the church to make disciples.
Speaker 2:It's a call for the church to pray. And I do love the fact that y'all are tied to a church because if a kid asks, hey. Do you go to church? Or, hey. Tell me then, bam, there's an open door.
Speaker 2:So is the director paid by Kids Hope USA, or do they do they fund do they fundraise their own salary? Are they paid by the church? How does that work?
Speaker 3:Depends. The the but the director is not paid by our organization. We are a very small organization as sort of people go, and the church makes a decision about whether or not they want to to pay that director. Some of our directors are paid, so they would be like a paid staff person at the church. Some of our directors are, volunteers.
Speaker 3:So it it kind of, again, kinda depends on that situation. We encourage churches if they can to honor the the time that's invested because it is significant by offering some sort of stipend or or or payment, but it's not required.
Speaker 2:Interesting. That's so cool. Mhmm. So you talked earlier about how to how to train mentors and how to train churches. Can you go into a tiny bit more detail on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So we start obviously with the director, and there's a a pretty significant training period for the director. By the way, our training 25 years ago was all in person, and the folks came from all over the country to a 3 day really intense training, but a really rich opportunity for fellowship.
Speaker 3:And we still have some directors who went through that training. We have several directors that have been, like, doing this for 20 plus years, and they still talk about the rich fellowship and the importance of that training. But we, you know, throughout as as time went by, we we switched to some different training models. And right now, our model is an online a set of online training modules with some opportunities built in for fellowship. But it is self paced, and people can move through that training kind of at their own pace.
Speaker 3:Once the director is trained, then then, you know, she he or she sort of puts out this call for mentors. And the mentors go through a pretty extensive screening process for child safety. That is absolutely our number one priority as an organization. And so the mentors are, you know, they apply, there's an interview, there's some screening, obviously, appropriate background checks and so on as required by the school. But once they're identified and and sort of approved, then we have a 1 hour online training that the mentors go through.
Speaker 3:And then usually the mentors go as a group or sometimes individually to visit the school. Right? Get a tour of the school, kind of, you know, learn kind of the policies of of entering the school and kind of being a good visitor. Where where is it that I can meet with my student? When am I gonna meet with my student?
Speaker 3:In some cases, there might be a dedicated classroom. But in other cases, you might meet in the library or you might meet in a resource room. Or even sometimes I meet with my student literally at a table out in the hallway. But we usually have a cap we you know, usually there's some sort of cabinet or set of of of shelves where you've got games, you have puzzles, you have coloring supplies, you know, you have you have things that so my student and I, we always go to the cabinet first, and she always wants to pick a game or Legos. So so there's some kind of central location where the kids hope stuff is at that school.
Speaker 3:Anyway, but the mentors do receive training, really simple training, Zach, on, you know, the importance of listening, the importance of encouraging, the importance of having the child make some decisions. Like I just said, I work with a 1st grader, but she has a lot of power to pick a game. We talk about when we're gonna play that game. Oh, we have a worksheet to do. Well, let's do our worksheet first.
Speaker 3:You know? So we talk about decision making. We talk about time management. We talk about ways in which the the mentor can build up the character of the student. Anything from confidence to kindness to empathy to honesty to thankfulness, these are opportunities that a mentor has to to again kind of build up the student.
Speaker 3:Super quick story. We actually have a little training module on how you can help your student introduce themselves to someone they don't know. We call it meet and greet. And it's a really cute little video that kind of helps the mentor kinda know the sort of pattern to meeting someone. Right?
Speaker 3:Anything from making eye contact, to saying hello, to shaking hands. And one of my good friends and colleagues, was doing this with her student, and this was at a church down in Texas. And so at the start of their mentoring time for a few weeks in a row, they kinda practiced this. Right? They kinda went through this ritual of of meeting each meeting someone new and introducing themselves.
Speaker 3:And then they began to go around the school and let the child introduce themselves to a few other of the other adults in the school, which was great practice. Well, after a few weeks of this, one day, the the mentor came to school, and the student said, now I'm gonna teach you how to do the introduction in Spanish. And that was the opportunity for the student then to teach the mentor how to make that introduction in Spanish. And it's such a beautiful example of what it means to sort of have this give and take in the relationship. It's not this one way relationship where the mentor is imparting wisdom or learning or but it truly is that fun relationship where both of them are learning and growing and and gaining from the relationship.
Speaker 3:And that's just such a great example. Now let me teach you how to do it in Spanish. So I I tell that story because I just think it it just sheds light. Again, the creativity of kids and kind of their own spirit and their own little personality coming out. So love it.
Speaker 2:I think that's hilarious. So there is no such thing as a perfect school in regards to who can and who can't participate in the Kids Hope program. There's no such thing as a perfect church. You know, you can have the big church, you can have the small church. So what are some more things that you look for whenever you are, like do you guys target a new city, or do y'all just, like, wait for someone to say, hey.
Speaker 2:I think I I think that our church could benefit from the Kids Hope program or what?
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Yeah. We we work in a number of different, I would say, kind of avenues for recruiting. So first, I'll handle kind of the the school question and then more broadly kind of that growth question. So when it comes to schools, honestly, Zach, long ago, let's just, you know, put ourselves back 25 years ago.
Speaker 3:And when Virgil identified this as a model, whenever he would sort of mention this idea, people would say, oh, Virgil, you're gonna have no problem getting churches. You're just gonna have problem with schools. Schools don't wanna partner with the church. And maybe it's just the, you know, maybe it's just the wonder of God and the Holy Spirit, but that is the exact opposite of what it's been. We have very few schools who aren't interested in a mentoring program.
Speaker 3:When a school learns about our model, our training, our respect, our preparation, the fact that we honestly, we ask the church to really do all of the heavy lifting. It doesn't cost the school anything. The school is really there to receive this ministry from the church. And schools love it. Schools are begging for it.
Speaker 3:And I don't mean to imply that churches aren't receptive, but churches are churches are very busy. Churches hear a lot about different ministries. Churches are themselves offering, in some cases, you know, a a wide variety of of ministries already within their own congregation. So of the 2, it's more difficult for us to recruit new churches than it is for us to recruit new schools. Schools, I think it's important for them to get to be open to that kind of growth mindset of their students.
Speaker 3:Some some teachers, honestly, are a little cautious about their students being gone from their classroom for an hour a week, but some, I just know, you know, our very best principals and counselors and teachers know that what's happening in that 1 hour a week is that one on one attention that, you know, just, you know, it it makes such a big difference. So a growth minded school, a school that is looking for that kinda community partnership is is great. For for churches, yeah, again, an outwardly focused church. A church, as you just said, looking to build relationships in their own neighborhood. Right?
Speaker 3:This is sort of local missions 1 on 1 101. Right? Where do you have a school? It might be a block from your church. It might be 3 blocks.
Speaker 3:It might be a 5 minute drive. I bet that the majority of people in your congregation drive by that church, if not daily, weekly. Excuse me, drive by that school, right? They drive by that school all the time. Turn into the parking lot, get out of your car, go in and and and and be part of the life of that school.
Speaker 3:It's incredible. It's really a beautiful opportunity. So we as an organization reach out to churches, we reach out to schools. One of the best ways I'll just mention 2 very briefly, best ways that we can spread the word of Kids Hope USA. One is when someone has been part of a Kids Help USA program and maybe moves.
Speaker 3:Right? Moves to a new city, maybe moves to a new church, often they will approach the pastor or a leader in the church and say, have you ever heard of Kids Help USA? We had this at our previous congregation. We found it was fantastic. So a lot of that word-of-mouth referral certainly happens.
Speaker 3:Another really powerful way is that when, let's just say a school district might have 10 elementary schools. Once we get 2 or 3 of those elementary schools partnered with the Kids Help USA Church, the principals talk to each other. And the principals say to each other, hey. Have you heard of this Kids Help USA mentoring program? Did you know that folks from, you know, Prince of Peace Lutheran down the street, they come once a week into my school.
Speaker 3:Ten volunteer mentors, and boy, are they transforming our school. And so when when we have some really good programs in a district, that then helps open the door to fill that district. You know, so if it's 3 out of those 10 schools, how can we find those other 7 schools partners? And oftentimes, it's those churches and those principles that then can help us identify what other churches in the area might wanna partner with those schools. So those are just two ways that we grow.
Speaker 2:That's great. I think that there's a lot of intentionality there, doctor Pearson, and I think that y'all are super strategic in that. And and just what a great I mean, it sounds to me like y'all are pretty organic.
Speaker 3:Yes. Yes.
Speaker 2:And just like how you guys are the bridge between the local church and the local school. And y'all kinda provide the bones, and then y'all let the church and the school kinda just kinda start to figure it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I'm so glad you mentioned that, Zach, because that's absolutely true. We actually have an expression that says, nobody mentors for Kids Hope USA. They mentor for their local church. Because what we do as an organization is exactly that, provide the framework, provide the structure so that church and school can form a partnership.
Speaker 3:And what's beautiful is that, yes, I mean, we do have a a framework, but it's incredible what that conversation over time. More needs, you know, the school begins to trust the church. And if the if the school needs backpacks, or the school needs winter coats, or the school needs some gift cards for teacher appreciation week, or a coffee cart, you know, that school knows that they can trust the church. Now I'm not saying that that church necessarily needs to or can meet all the needs of the school, but man, is it good to know you've got a trusted partner. And that trusted partner sometimes can open the door then to additional ministries, as you say, that that kind of individualized relationship that comes when they form that partnership.
Speaker 2:Well, you are building relationships between mentors and mentees. You're also building relationships between schools and churches.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And the last time I checked, the the best way to collaborate, the best way to work together to advance the kingdom or just to serve the kids or the families in your area is through relationship. With that comes trust, with that comes the opportunity to get to know someone and to believe the best about them. And that is such a great I'm so happy that you said that just like it's so much more than just one mentor, 1 kid, 1 church, 1 school, 1 hour. It's it's that relationship. It's that, hey, we have a vacation bible school.
Speaker 2:Hey, we have a coach drive. Hey, we we're offering this thing at our church. And so you you truly are just allowing the local church to mobilize into their community. So I'm I'm gonna ask you some personal questions and try feel free to answer them or not. But Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I'm taking taking a look at your website. Y'all there's less than 20 people on staff. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm assuming that your budget is less than less than 5,000,000. Can I say that?
Speaker 3:Oh, yes. Significantly less. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah. So you're I mean, you're able to serve are y'all serving tens of thousands of kids or what?
Speaker 3:Yeah. But it's it's tricky for us to know that, Zach. Everybody always wants to know the number. It it's tricky partly because that's always changing. Right?
Speaker 3:We do we do survey our programs at least once a year to just say, you know, what's happening. And I would say 2019 when I joined the organization, we were serving between 101,000 students. So between a 1000 programs, that means the average is around 10, you know, 10 students per program, with some being much larger and, you know, some being smaller. It has, as I shared before, it's been a real challenge during the pandemic. And so we are not in in 2021, 22, we did not serve 10,000 students.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:You know, it's it's definitely still in the 1,000. No question about it. And our schools are asking for more mentors, and our churches are stepping up.
Speaker 2:But y'all are I mean, as a former executive myself, like, we we we tried to keep the price per kid around $5,000.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. If I'm
Speaker 2:doing the math correct, you're able to mentor a kid for less than 1,000. Not less than 500.
Speaker 3:I would actually say we did calculate it once. As as our organization, it's probably closer to about a $150. But that's because we are inviting obviously, we're inviting the church
Speaker 2:The church.
Speaker 3:To mobilize them all peers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, I mean, the power of Kids Hope USA is the church. I mean, y'all are just the connector.
Speaker 3:Yep. We are the connector.
Speaker 2:And The
Speaker 3:power is the church.
Speaker 2:I mean, y'all don't not to not to say what you guys are doing isn't working because, obviously, it is. But y'all don't really care about the numbers. Y'all don't I mean, y'all aren't trying to raise a tremendously, you know, massive budget. You're just trying to connect churches with schools.
Speaker 3:Exactly. That's exactly right. Yeah. Very simple. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep. Well, that's mind blowing, Karen, and I appreciate everything that you guys talked about today. And I think what you guys are doing is fantastic. So thank you so much for sharing it. I wanna hear if you had some wisdom for new mentors or for someone who's starting a mentoring program.
Speaker 2:Tell me a couple things that you would share with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. We talked about this before, but consistency and showing up is absolutely the number one thing. You know? Show up.
Speaker 3:Be there when you say you're gonna be there because that makes a huge difference. I also like to tell mentors that doing something is oftentimes a really important way to establish that early relationship. Play a game, do a puzzle, read a book. It's oftentimes, difficult, especially for the youngest of our children, to really engage in conversation, but man, do they love to play connect 4 or UNO or, you know, go outside on the playground and throw a ball or shoot baskets together or something. So I I just tell mentors, when you show up, be there, but also be thinking about what you can do together.
Speaker 3:Because oftentimes doing something together is sort of that, yeah, it just kinda provides that vehicle for for that relationship building. And I'd say be be ready for your own life to be changed. You have to go in with the open mind that your life is also gonna be changed. You're gonna learn something about that little person. They're gonna they're gonna ask you questions.
Speaker 3:They're gonna open up. They're gonna teach you things, show you things, and it's you just won't be the same. You won't be the same. So open yourself up and kinda get ready for the ride. And we just have incredible young people in our country today, and what they need is encouragement.
Speaker 3:And what they need is somebody to to listen and encourage and support them without a lot of judgement. And what a gift. And they're gonna listen and and ask questions of you largely without judgement as well, especially when they're that young. And it's just so freeing and and so much fun. It it really is.
Speaker 3:Have fun.
Speaker 2:That's great. Someone told me last week, kids spell love, t I m e. And Yeah. I was like, I think I've heard that before, but that is so true. Like, I have a kid who's 7, a kid who's 5, and a kid who's 3, and the only thing that they wanna do is just hang out with dad.
Speaker 3:Right. Right. So Yeah. That's great.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, doctor Pearson, if someone wants to get in touch with you, tell us how to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So kids help usa.org is our website, and there's plenty about opportunity to connect there. You know, info at kidshopeusa.org is our, general website or general email, excuse me. But, yeah, go to our website and and and connect, and we would love to, yeah, to learn more about you, your community, your church, your school, your neighborhood, and your interest in mentoring.
Speaker 2:That's great. I love it. Well, thank you so much for your time, doctor Karen Pearson of Kids Hope USA. What tremendous work you guys are doing to advance the kingdom, to partner the local church with the local school so that the people of God can love their neighbors well and who who can serve their community and to invest in the kids and families and just create as many opportunities as possible for people to hear about Jesus. I love it.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much for your time. And if you are paying attention to this podcast, we want you to know one thing and that's you can mentor.