Apr 4, 2018 5 min read

When Troy Schuler heard about the work one Canonsburg man was doing with kids, he was curious and wondered how he could help. “I picked up the phone and wound up meeting with him,” Schuler remembers. “I thought what he was doing was phenomenal.”

That call was to JR Gardner, who is the ministry site director in Canonsburg for Metro Pittsburgh Youth for Christ. The group is a faith-based nonprofit that provides after-school activities for sixth through eighth graders, plus hosts weekly gatherings. The group had just bought the 18,000-square-foot former National Guard Armory building on West College Street in Canonsburg and was transforming the old building into a youth center, refurbishing its gymnasium.

Schuler has been active in youth ministry for years and was interested in what he could do to help. “It’s great to get these kids to come into a youth center to get together and play sports,” he says. “But what was missing was one-on-one interaction. So, we decided to start a mentoring program within Canonsburg.”

That idea grew into the Youth Mentoring Program at the Armory Youth Center in Canonsburg. Schuler works in sales and marketing for a kitchenware firm and volunteers with the mentoring program along with his wife, Elaine, who is a counselor with Mercy Behavioral Health, working with teenagers who are dealing with mental health issues. The duo says there is huge need for a mentoring program in Canonsburg and other communities in Washington County – especially in communities that have a high percentage of single-parent homes.

“There are a lot of kids growing up with one parent or with their grandparents or not their biological parents,” Troy says. “That’s what got us thinking about a mentoring program and that’s how we got started.”

The program is growing thanks to a partnership with Family Guidance, an organization that has facilitated mentoring in the Pittsburgh area for decades and trains Armory Youth Center mentors, along with matching them with kids. “We try to match them with someone appropriate and similar personalities,” Elaine says.

The program is just getting started, and the group has made several mentor matches so far. More are in the works, but one challenge is finding enough mentors to serve the kids.

“The difficult part is finding mentors,” explains Troy. “The trouble is finding adults who have the time and will take the time to mentor a child. It’s kind of difficult.”

With the help of Family Guidance, mentors are screened with extensive background checks, then receive thorough training to help equip them with the skills to be a successful mentor.

“We take a lot of time to match them,” adds Troy. “We find if there’s not a common interest, it just won’t work. We talk with the child and with their parents and find out what they like to do. Sometimes a child will say they’re not musically inclined, but always loved the idea of playing guitar. If you have a mentor who plays guitar, they can teach them a new skill.”

The program is called a “relational ministry,” with the goal of helping children to grow spiritually and emotionally and to have a lasting impact on their lives. The first step is often the most difficult because it involves getting a child to open up to the mentor and to trust him or her. Elaine’s experience as a foster parent has been helpful in doing this.

“It takes trust, and that doesn’t come overnight,” she says. “We train the mentors to stick with it because a lot of these kids will test you at first. But if you’re consistent and keep coming back, then they start to learn that you’re not going anywhere.”

Troy adds that it just takes some time to build trust in that individual. “We just encourage them to be there,” he says. “The one thing these kids don’t have in their lives is consistency. Just be there for them.”

If finding mentors is the hard part, finding kids who are interested in the program is the easy part. Troy says some come from the Campus Life program they run at the youth center on Tuesday evenings, while others have heard about it through word of mouth or fliers or have been referred by Family Guidance or their school guidance counselors.

“One thing I’ve realized in raising my own kids is that they have a hard time when they’re going through something, actually speaking to their parents,” he says. “Sometimes they are more willing to share with another adult. It’s kind of like being a coach.”

They ask mentors to try to spend an hour a week with the kids and give encouragement through a phone call or a text or by attending one of their sporting events or activities.

“I believe in the program and believe that all kids can benefit from having a positive role model,” says Troy. “You don’t always have that in broken families, and we have a lot of broken families.”

His wife echoes those sentiments and says her passion for mentoring comes from seeing successful children have someone who believes in them. “In a lot of these broken homes, they don’t have anybody that really believes in them and can guide them. I just have a passion to bring some success to these kids who have nobody else.”

For more information on the program or to volunteer as a mentor, visit yfcmp.org.