For many years now, God has given us the opportunity to invest in furthering the Kingdom of God by helping new mentoring ministries get started. I would like to tell you about several of these ministries. In 1996 we partnered with Prison Fellowship to start a Christian mentoring ministry that was then called Match Point. We trained the initial staff and Prison Fellowship used our systems, forms and training materials for their mentors. Today they are known by the name MentorKids USA and are effectively working with over 200 mentors who are ministering to the children of incarcerated parents in Phoenix AZ. We still have a very close relationship with this part of God’s work.
One year later, we worked with a Youth For Christ Program in South Africa to start a new mentoring ministry to kids who live on the garbage dumps. Last time we touched base with them, they had 56 mentors meeting with these homeless kids on a weekly basis.
In 2001 we started receiving calls from churches and ministries across the nation. Our President, George W. Bush, was encouraging the faith based community to use the most effective known strategy to reach out to our nation’s fatherless youth; mentoring. In response to these calls, we started theChristian Mentoring Institute. This national effort was a challenge to us financially, but it excited us to the true potential of the methodology that God has entrusted to us. Dozens of new mentoring ministries were started. Some were established in churches, ministering to the children of their single parent families, while others reached out to their communities, duplicating what God has done here on Long Island. Since that time the Christian Mentoring Institute has merged with a new mentoring ministry called One Kid at a Time. This ministry was led by Stu Epperson. Then we folded both ministries into a new mentoring ministry and very effective national ministry called The Christian Association of Youth Mentoring. This ministry is continuing the work of One Kid at a Time and the Christian Mentoring institute by training new mentoring ministries in churches and communities across the nation. Both Stu Epperson and our Executive Director John Cragg are on the Board of Directors. The first Executive Director of this ministry was Dr. Hal Orr, who cut his mentoring teeth by mentoring a child here on Long Island. After he became semi-retired from his practice, Dr. Orr became a member of our staff. He was being used by God to minister to new ministries across the nation. The current Executive Director of The Christian Association for Youth Mentoring is Peter Vanacore. Peter was the first Area Director for Long Island Youth Mentoring at our inception in 1981. He has worked here with excellence for a total of 19 years. He has a Masters degree in social work and regularly teaches at Gordon College in Massachusetts. Now Peter is training new ministies and providing them with support for their own safe and effective mentoring ministry.
Receive help in starting a new mentoring ministry
If you desire to start a mentoring ministry in your church or community and you live in the tri-state area, in or around Long Island, please contact us by clicking on the following link. If you live elsewhere, we will connect you with our national training affiliate, the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring. Either way, you will receive significant help in starting this effective ministry to fatherless kids. Our goal is to help you start a SAFE and EFFECTIVE ministry to needy children. After you complete our training, you will be equipped to recruit, screen and train mentors. You will also have a system to supervise them in an effective ministry to children.
In 2006, Long Island Youth Mentoring celebrated 25 years of being used by God to express His love to his children. Please contact us if we can help you start a new mentoring ministry.