Office of Youth Development

The City of Sacramento will be "the most youth-friendly city in the world"

Employee Mentoring Program

One of Sacramento’s most important assets is its youth and strategies that promote our youth to become productive citizens are vital to our future. A new program being offered as a benefit for City of Sacramento employees is the opportunity to mentor in the public schools in Sacramento and to receive mentoring leave of up to 40 hours annually to participate. This is an opportunity to make a real difference in a child’s life and to volunteer in a structured setting.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters organization released in June 2007 a commissioned study of school based mentoring programs across the nation. The findings indicated that by the end of the first school year, teachers reported improvements in a variety of outcomes for students who participated in school-based mentoring programs. These included overall academic performance, quality of class work, number of assignments turned in, and reduction of serious school infractions such as fighting and suspensions. The mentored students also reported feeling more competent academically, and improved their attendance. The mentored students also reported an additional benefit of having a non-parental adult they looked up to and talked to about their personal problems who cared about what happened to them and influenced the choices they made.

A city employee-mentor recently visited one of mentoring programs, “LIFT” at the Hiram Johnson High School which is approved for the use of City mentoring leave. The program focuses on providing career guidance and inspiration to teens who are identified as “at-risk”. Each mentor is carefully screened through an application process, background check and fingerprinting. Once the mentor is cleared they receive training in how to mentor and are paired with a student - a “mentee”. The mentors and mentees meet every week for lunch at the school, the program often brings in outside speakers, provides a topic for discussion or an activity that the mentor and student can do together. At other times the mentors and students simply chat. One mentor and mentee were paired because they both loved soccer and had lots to discuss about the latest international games. A lunch of pizza and salad was provided at no charge. Afterwards the mentors meet briefly with the staff of the LIFT program to de-brief about the session and discuss any issues that may have arisen. The LIFT program also offers the mentors and students the opportunity to take additional leadership training and to do community service projects.

If you would like to serve as a mentor please view our mentoring directory. If you feel you could spare an hour a week to make a difference in the life of a child, give one of these programs a call and find out more!

Mentoring Directory