FAIRMONT– Earlier this week, three representatives of Kinship of Martin County shared an update on the organization and its goals with the Martin County Commissioners.

Executive Director, Jen Kahler, gave a 2022 recap. She said over the year they served 66 matches and currently have 18 children waiting for a mentor.

“It’s still a lot but it’s significantly less than the last couple year’s waiting list, which we’re really happy about,” Kahler said.

She added that they have just four children who have been waiting for longer than a year, which is also a big accomplishment for them.

“Twenty-eight percent of the matches currently matched in our program are from outside of Fairmont but 45 percent of the kids on our waiting list are from outside of Fairmont,” Kahler said.

To address that, one of Kinship’s major goals for 2023 is to focus on targeted growth attainment for mentors outside of Fairmont. Kahler said it’s always been a challenge for them and remains to be a challenge, especially the farther away from Fairmont.

Ceylon in particular is a target area as they have several mentees waiting from the Ceylon area. Kahler said their goal is to gain two new mentors from each city– Ceylon, Sherburn, Trimont and Welcome– by the end of 2023.

Associate Director, Katy Gonzalez, said that because they always seem to have a waiting list, they’ve made it a priority to refocus on their Rent-a-Ment program. The program temporarily pairs an adult with a child on the waiting list while they wait for a more permanent mentor.

“Of the 18 kids… 11 of them were still able to interact at our Kinship events and get to know some other adults and it helps us get to know them a little better as well,” Gonzalez said.

She said this past year they also focused on evaluating their program by its participants and were excited to have 100 percent of their mentors fill out quarterly activity reports for the first time ever.

“This led to a 57 percent increase on tracked hangout hours of mentors and mentees,” Gonzalez said.

Associate Director, Courtney Lockwood, who came on over the summer, shared that she has a Master’s in business administration and was brought in to help with the business side of Kinship, along with strategic growth.

Lockwood said the newest program they’re working on right now is an Ambassadors Program. For that they’re attempting to partner with businesses in Martin County with the hopes that they’ll spread the word about Kinship with their employees and also participate in an end-of-year event at Fairmont High School.

“We already have the schools involved and they’re on board. The other schools in the county will bus their 10th through 12th graders to Fairmont starting next March,” Lockwood said.

She said all of the businesses will have booths in the gym and the students will be given a random education level and a salary based on that education level.

“It will be the way that Martin County is. We have 50 percent of people in poverty and it will be 50 percent of them who will experience what is actually going on in our county,” Lockwood said.

The students will have a year’s salary to go around and get a year’s worth of housing, childcare costs, transportation and everything they would need to survive for one year. In doing this, the students will go around to the different businesses’ booths, which will allow students to meet business representatives and also show them that everything they need is here in the community.

“We’ll also have our community resources there to show them that just because you can afford to have a car, we have a bus and you can ride the bus,” Lockwood said.

She also pointed out that often times people don’t know the cost of childcare until they need it, but that if it’s made known earlier, people can plan better for the future.

“The hope is that we create youth that are more proactive rather than reactive. Instead of life happening to them, they are planning ahead for life. Even if they do hit a snag, they know where they can go to get what they need in their own community,” Lockwood said.

Kinship has already been approved of a grant to run this program for the first year. Right now the plan is to have 637 students go through this program next March.

In wrapping up the update, Kahler thanked the commissioners for their continued support of Kinship. She also pointed out that January is national mentoring month and she said they’re celebrating in a number of ways, including with a show at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont.