Teen outreach program needs volunteers
Leslie Livingston needed to get to work Thursday but took the time to meet with her longtime friend and mentor, Heather Crowe.
“I couldn’t have done it without her,” Livingston said. “‘Till this day, she teaches me how to love myself.”
Livingston met Crowe through the Washington Health System Teen Outreach ECHO (Educate Children for Healthy Outcomes) program. As a young teen, Livingston went through a life-changing trauma. In her darkest moments, she didn’t want to live. Now 21, Livingston credits Crowe with turning her life around. She plans to become a registered nurse and is optimistic about her future.
“Heather never judged me. She helped me see why I was getting negative reactions instead of positive,” Livingston said. “I’ve been out of school for years. She’ll be in my wedding – that’s how much she means to me.”
The ECHO program started in 1999 with an original goal to reduce the number of teen pregnancies in the area. Under director Mary Jo Podgurski’s leadership, that goal was achieved. But Podgurski found the program, in which mentors form lasting connections with young people, also had other positive outcomes: students involved achieved better grades and, therefore, were more likely to graduate.
With the early years of the mentoring program as a guide, the focus of ECHO changed to increasing graduation rates in Washington School District from 67 percent in 2014 to 87 percent in 2020.
“Kids should feel loved and worthy of good things. A constant connection builds that up,” Podgurski said.
Working with the school district, Teen Outreach identified 20 eighth-graders who could falter in school. Community volunteers will be trained and meet with the students and their families regularly for the next five years.
Podgurski and her team – Crowe, David Gatling and Marjorie Ruschel – are confident the community is up to the challenge. Twelve mentors already have been selected, and they’re looking for eight more.
“We don’t make it a casual connection. It’s a real connection. When we connect, it’s unequivocally, unconditionally, without judgment,” Podgurski said. “We’ve gotten great feedback – a lot of Wash High graduates who want these kids to graduate. People have it in them to volunteer.”
Gatling, a graduate of Wash High and vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and Ruschel, a social worker with years of employment with county youth services, are working to find community members who want to make a difference. The mentors will be matched with students to empower them to make healthy choices and strengthen family relationships.
“We’re going to shore up families and keep parents in a position of respect,” Podgurski said.
Advisers will work with students in decision-making, communication, problem-solving, anger management, assertiveness training, conflict resolution, socialization and life skills. But, perhaps more important, the adults will provide constant support to their advisees, through listening without judgment.
Ruschel said eighth-graders were chosen because they are in a period of change.
“Kids have challenges. This is a critical age with a lot of transition,” she said. “We’ll provide an extra level of support to them and their families.”
Podgurski shared a number of statistics: Nongraduates make 41 percent less a year than graduates. People who don’t graduate are more likely to live in poverty. Incarceration rates for those who don’t graduate are 63 times higher than those who do. A dropout will end up costing taxpayers an average of $292,000 over a lifetime.
“If you affect the life of a child, you affect the future,” Podgurski said.
In addition to one-on-one mentors, volunteers are needed to provide experiences, such as cooking classes, for students and advisers; secondary mentors also are needed to fill in for primary mentors.
Livingston, upon learning about the varied volunteer roles, jumped at the opportunity.
“That’s the least I can do, right?” she said.