Mentoring

Changing Lives

The 4C Coalition Mentor Program is a collaboration between a collective of churches in the Rainier Valley and the King County Superior Court.

This program matches youth who are involved in the King County Superior Court system with positive role models from their community. The mentor helps the youth realize alternatives to destructive behavior while participating in positive one-on-one activities. The mentor works with the court and an advocacy team assigned to the youth to help overcome his or her personal challenges.

Throughout the year, the mentoring program provides workshops and activities for project participants. The 4C Coalition also reaches out to parents, teachers, criminal justice professionals and others who have contact with our youth. Participants are recognized at an annual dinner.

The 4C Coalition has sponsored annual mentoring Sundays within a dozen local churches and participates in community festivals to recruit mentors.

Special Volunteers

Our mentors are people from throughout our community who want to make a positive difference in a young person's life.

All of our mentors are 21 and older and screened through a Washington State Patrol background check.

Mentors attend six hours of training before being matched with a youth and must attend ongoing bi-monthly training. Our mentors stay in contact with their mentee weekly, doing such things as talking by phone, taking a walk, having dinner together, attending a sporting event or working on homework. Mentors make a minimum one-year commitment to the program and youth.

About Our Mentees

The 4C Coalition Mentor Program is open to youth who are on probation and have been assessed as moderate or high-risk to re-offend and must be a minimum of four to six months from completing probation.

Our Success

The program model that the 4C Coalition adheres to has received recognition from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy as a model for a reduction in crime and cost to taxpayers in Washington State. In 2006, the United Way of King County named a 4C Coalition volunteer as its Outstanding Mentor of the Year.