FAIRMONT– Kinship of Martin County is celebrating National Mentoring Month this January. The local mentoring organization is capitalizing on the national month in order to get its message out to more people.

Jen Kahler, executive director of Kinship of Martin County, said she uses the month, which has a few special days within it, to maximize the effect of their messaging.

This month includes “I Am a Mentor Day,” “International Mentoring Day,” “Martin Luther King day of service,” and “Thank Your Mentor Day.”

Sarah Caballero, a director at Kinship, along with Katy Gonzalez, said, “We do our mentor appreciation in the month of January.”

She said the last two year it’s been virtual, but they’ve helped the mentees put together a program for the mentors to let them know how appreciated they are.

Kahler said she also uses the month to put extra effort into getting messaging out on social media.

“We’re consistently trying to get the message out to male mentors. We have a waiting list of boys that’s rather long,” said Caballero.

There are currently over 20 boys on the waiting list and in the last couple of days they’ve received three more mentee applications from boys.

“Men are needed. They have a lot to offer,” Caballero said.

She said they’ve tried many different ways to get the word out that they’re in need of mentors. They’ve gone to different towns in the county to speak at their city council meetings and each year they speak to the Martin County Commissioners.

“We’ve spoken in churches, organizations like Kiwanis and Lions. We’re trying to go all of the ways we can to get closer to men, just to have a conversation,” Caballero said.

While male mentors are in high demand, Kinship is always looking for mentors.

There’s a pretty extensive vetting process that is gone through after a mentor applies. Kahler said first they do a background check and then each mentor goes through a two-hour long training as well as an interview.

“We do reference checks and even a home visit. It gives us insight into who they are. The student is allowed to go to their mentor’s house so we do everything we can to keep them safe,” she said.

Mentors have to agree to be matched for a year and during that year, they agree to get together with their mentee two or three times a month for a total of three to six hours over the course of the month.

“You can do fun, crazy different things but one of the easiest ways to interact with your mentee is to pull them into the things you and your family are always doing,” Kahler explain.

She said that shouldn’t be too hard because Kinship tries to match mentors and mentees based on similar interests.

As for getting interested kids, Kahler said a lot of them are from connections to human services or with the school. No certain criteria needs to be met to be a mentee, they just have to be at least five years old to enter into the program.

Kahler said another thing they’re working on this month is re-establishing their “rent-a-ment” program.

A “rent-a-ment” can either be a general volunteer who isn’t ready to commit to being a mentor or is interested in learning more. It can also be a mentor who’s already been on-boarded but who hasn’t been officially matched yet.

Kahler said they always have a waiting list and sometimes when kids come into the program, there’s a specific reason and the need is pretty great.

“The idea is that we have these adult volunteers who can take the kids off the waiting list and bring them to an event or the open hours that we have. They can support that youth on a one-time, one-on-one basis,” Kahler explained.

She said it’s also a good way to see how a mentor interacts with the kids and vice-versa.

The vetting process is not as extensive for a “rent-a-ment” because they’ll spend time with one kid at an event so there’s no training or house check required.

Kinship attempts to put on some kind of monthly event and they also hold weekly open hours at the Kinship house. This allows for a planned activity as well as a space for mentors and mentees to get together.

Kahler said they’re working on planning a winter activity with the snowmobile club, though she pointed out it’s dependent on the weather.

As for what each party gets out of Kinship, Caballero said, “who couldn’t benefit from a friend? From somebody to look up to?”

She said for the kids, it provides consistency and an adult who shows up and enjoys spending time with them.

Kahler pointed out that there are many well-proven statistics on the benefits of having a positive mentor including better grades in school and better graduation rates.

“Mentoring isn’t something that we just do at Kinship, it’s something that happens naturally if you’re fortunate. Not everyone is lucky enough to have natural mentors and that’s where Kinship comes in,” she said.

For more information on Kinship, or to apply, visit kinshipofmartincounty.com.