Volunteers are being sought to help teenagers avoid some of the bumps on the rough road to
adulthood.A Wood County Teen Mentoring Program is being set up to match volunteer adults with teenagers in
foster care or those who have a history in juvenile court.The program is designed to help the youth by
providing:• A positive adult role model in their lives to help guide them in the right direction.• Help
guiding them through their vocational or educational goals.• Help learning independent living skills.• Fun
experiences with a positive role model.“This is not just about going to baseball games,” Kelly Hickle-Lentz,
of Wood County Children’s Services, explained to the county commissioners last week about the new
program.The program will start slowly, targeting up to eight youth, ages 15 to 17, at a time.The teen
mentoring program will offer some of the same benefits provided by Big Brothers/Big Sisters. That program,
however, ends for youth once they reach age 14.“We saw this gap,” said Tim Brown, executive director of the
Wood County Juvenile Court.Youth will be chosen for the program based on their needs, and they will be
matched with mentors based on their compatibility. The goal is to help the teens be more prepared for
independent living when they leave foster care or become emancipated from their parents.“This is one more
person in their lives who could be a positive support for them,” Hickle-Lentz said of the adult mentors.The
mentors will help with such skills as balancing the checkbook, basic cooking, paying bills, furthering their
education, and being involved in community service projects. The matches will also spend time on activities
that have no learning goals other than having fun.The program organizers would like to start the mentoring
effort using county employees. They will undergo background checks, then be given initial training followed
by annual updates. Each mentor will be asked to make at least a one-year commitment to the program.The
volunteer mentors will be required to complete monthly reports. Each match will be monitored monthly by the
organizers to ensure its progress.