Wyatt Baptist’s Adopt-a-School program hopes to expand to other district schools

Three years ago, members of Wyatt Baptist Church approached their pastors, Josh Bullock, Adam Thomas and Donny Hymer, to gauge their interest in starting a mentoring program within the El Dorado School District. The program, Dr. Tony Evans’ Adopt-a-School Initiative, has so far been a success and Vicki Harmon, mentoring coordinator, is reaching out to other local churches in the hopes of expanding throughout the district.

So far, with about 25 mentors from Wyatt Baptist Church, the program has begun mentoring about 35 students, starting while the students were at Yocum Elementary and following them as they progressed through school. With the $52,400 grant they received through the SHARE Foundation’s Violence Intervention Plan, they will hold a training session with representatives from Dr. Evans’ Dallas church on April 6 in El Dorado.

“We’re hoping to reach at least 100 people with that training,” Harmon said. Already, a few churches have committed to sending delegates to the training, including College Avenue Church of Christ, Parkers Chapel First Baptist and First Assembly of God.

When they were assessing the school district’s needs, Harmon said that rather than deciding what they wanted to do to help, they asked school officials and district administration what student needs they could help to meet. They settled on mentoring at-risk students who could use a consistent role model.

“We had several groups coming in wanting to mentor. Well, they would come in and they’d do their thing for a couple months, they’d get tired of it and that did more harm to the child than it did good,” said El Dorado School District Superintendent Jim Tucker. “Wyatt approached us about 5 years ago … it’s really taken off. They train the mentors – I think it’s very intentional and very consistent and somebody from the church monitors it to make sure someone is going to see that child every time.”

Before allowing someone to become a mentor, the church runs a background check and requires potential mentors to sign a contract promising their commitment. Students and mentors are then matched based on mutual interests. Mentoring can range from crafting birdhouses and embroideries to tutoring to etiquette lessons. Children meet with their mentors once weekly during an elective period, and the mentors follow their charges through their school career. While they started at Yocum, mentors from Wyatt Baptist can now be found with

their respective students at Washington Middle School and Barton Junior High as well.

“We’re just family. We just have grown to be family,” Harmon said of the children she and her husband mentor.

They try to attend all of their mentees’ extracurricular activities like plays, athletic events and academic competitions.

“If the public is invited, we’re invited,” Harmon said.

Adopted schools’ administrators and counselors decide which children could benefit the most from mentoring, and parents must give their permission for their child to be mentored.

According to a study from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, children who have a mentor throughout their schooling have fewer unexcused absences from school, more confidence in their academic abilities, a more positive attitude toward school than their peers who are not mentored, exhibit better behavior at school and are more likely to attend college. With the El Dorado Promise, those mentored students are even more likely to attend college, as, according to the study, with tuition help, the odds of someone continuing their education increase.

Wyatt Baptist’s role in the SHARE Foundation’s Violence Intervention Plan is to promote community involvement. By bringing community members into schools, they are connecting with needy children they otherwise might not have had the opportunity to meet, Harmon said.

Wyatt Baptist plans to use the proven positive impact of mentoring to reduce violence in the community. They hope that the benefits from a positive school experience will help to reduce crime, school drop-out rates and pregnancy between unmarried couples.

“It just has a lot of hard work, ethics, a lot of character building stuff … There’s just so many ways that we can help them, get them the resources they need. Mainly just believing in them, there’s a lot of potential in these kids,” Harmon said.

For more information on the training session, contact Harmon at vicki_ harmon@yahoo.com. The cost to attend is $75, which will include the training materials, lecture study and a lunch. Scholarships are available, and those in need should contact Harmon.