Program To Provide Mentoring To Lealman Students For 12 1/2 Years

LEALMAN, FL — Friends of the Children - Tampa Bay will bring its long-term mentoring model to Lealman Avenue Elementary School, a Title I school.

While Friends of the Children - Tampa Bay has worked with students in Pinellas County since its inception, this will be the first school partnership in Pinellas County in which the organization will enroll a group of children in its 12 ½ year commitment.

Friends of the Children - Tampa Bay is part of a national organization that pairs paid, professional mentors (called Friends) with children facing multiple obstacles, including those who are in, or at risk of entering, the foster care system. The Friend walks alongside the student from kindergarten through high school graduation for 12 ½ years, no matter what. Friends are often the only consistent adult in these children's lives.

The Tampa Bay chapter will hire two new Friends to mentor selected students at Lealman Avenue Elementary. Beginning in 2023, Friends will spend several hours each week with each of their students, both in and out of the classroom. While each Friend focuses on their students, the positive impact of the Friend’s presence spreads throughout the student’s entire classroom, as well as their family or foster family.

“We’re extremely pleased to expand our presence into Pinellas County and work with Lealman Avenue Elementary,” said Rick McClintock, executive director of Friends - Tampa Bay. “These are children and families who are impacted by systematic inequities, including poverty, foster care, the criminal justice system and other traumatic experiences. We know that our long-term, 'power of one' model brings much-needed stability to a child’s life, helping them overcome obstacles, and eventually break the cycle of generational poverty.”

Friends - Tampa Bay has had a similar partnership with Foster Elementary School in Hillsborough County since 2020 and also works with other individual students at schools throughout Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

The Pinellas County partnership with Lealman Avenue Elementary School is made possible, in part, with a $1.1 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Founded in 2014, Friends of the Children – Tampa Bay has already achieved results with 98 percent of youth with Friends advancing to the next grade in school.

Nationally, the Friends of the Children model, executed throughout the 26 chapters, produces life-changing results:

• 83 percent of youth with Friends graduate high school, while in some communities, graduation rates are as low as 27 percent for youth without a Friend.
• 93 percent of youth with Friends avoid the juvenile justice system, compared to 74 percent without Friends.
• 98 percent of youth with Friends advanced to the next grade in school
• 92 percent of program graduates go on to enroll in post-secondary education, the military or become employed in a job that pays a living wage.

For more information about Friends of the Children - Tampa Bay, click here.