Working in the prison system with the Correctional Education Program at Ball State University a few years back, Scott Blackwell got a first-hand look at how family members – sometimes fathers and sons – were often locked behind bars at the same time.
Seeking an opportunity to give back to the community, he found a perfect fit with New Leaf Mentoring, which provides one-to-one mentoring for the children of incarcerated parents.
It’s turned out to be a perfect match for Blackwell, who has been mentoring Andrew for three years through New Leaf. They typically meet once a week to go bowling, see a movie and even participate in community service projects together; building a friendship that has provided them both with a new perspective.
“When I worked with the prison, there were a lot of fathers and sons there and a lot of family members that were in there together,” Blackwell said. “I just want Andrew to be able to see that there are lots of opportunities out there for him.
“I have seen Andrew mature over the years,” he added. “I think 12-year-olds are different than 15-year-olds. I haven’t heard Andrew tell me that he wants to be a professional wrestler recently. When he was 12, that was his life’s ambition.”
Now a freshman at Kokomo High School, Andrew said he’s learned a lot from not only Blackwell, but many of the other 16 mentors with New Leaf, who have served as positive role models during his formative years.
“I’ve learned a lot, like it’s not always about you, it’s about others,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot by just helping out with things like Buddy Bags – just that it pays to help out the community.”
New Leaf Mentoring was started in October 2010 by Rick Wilson, who wanted to build off the mission of other mentoring programs in the city, focusing on children of incarcerated parents as a way of providing them with positive role models.
The program also focuses on developing life skills through community service with programs like Kokomo Urban Outreach’s Buddy Bags and wrapping Christmas presents for the Kokomo Rescue Mission.
In addition to one-to-one meetings, New Leaf hosts structured group meetings twice a month, where mentors and mentees can interact in a fun environment at The Connection behind Morning Star Church.
There currently are 25 children in the program, with 16 matches, meaning several children without matches interact with mentors in the structured group setting. Mentors and mentees are matched up by gender and meet a minimum of one hour a week for a full year and there are no limits for how long or often matches are able to meet together.
In addition to teaching those life skills, Wilson said New Leaf allows children to be exposed to a number of positive role models on a regular basis.
“I wanted to have the kids around more adults in a safe environment,” he said. “I also wanted girls to be around men, because a lot of them don’t have a positive male role model in their lives.”
With the majority of the children from New Leaf starting the program between the ages of 8 and 10, Wilson has been able to see the individual growth of many of the mentees in the program as they now enter high school.
Hosting the structured group meetings has become a significant part of the program’s mission, Wilson said, after he witnessed how much work needed to be done to develop the social skills of many of the children after taking them on a camping trip together.
“The first time we went to camp in Ohio, the kids didn’t interact with each other very well,” he said. “They were lacking some social skills and interaction, so I thought it would be a good idea to get these kids together and have some teachable moments. From there, we did that once a month and it evolved to twice a month.”
The difference in social skills has been noticeable for Wilson, who has seen the boy he is mentoring grow by leaps and bounds.
“The biggest change is natural maturity, but the feedback I’m getting from the family is that he is less angry,” he said. “Most of the kids, particularly the boys in our program, are very angry [when they enter]. There’s been less of that with [my mentee].”
Another longtime mentee of the program, Gabby, has seen the benefits of New Leaf over the past four years, gaining a friend and confidant in her mentor Julie Bliss.
Now 13, Gabby said the two are able to regularly relate to each other about issue that come up in their daily lives.
“It was kind of weird at first because I didn’t really know anybody, but then as me and Julie started hanging out doing things together it’s been fun,” she said. “She’s taught me a lot of life lessons. She talks about her job and the problems that come up and I talk about school and the problems I have and we find ways to work those out.”
New Leaf is in need of more mentors to match with the children in the program. They go through a background check and screening as well as orientation before being matched up with children ages 6 to 18. For more information on New Leaf, contact Wilson at 765-432-4683.