A recent mentoring session at Eagle Harlem. At left is Bob Rubin, Co-Founder of The Foundation, who is mentoring Zion Smith.
One of the most valuable services The Bridge Golf Foundation provides for our young men is to match them with mentors through our Mentoring With a Purpose program.
This program, developed by Associate Executive Director Jeffrey Booker, includes a series of Saturday workshops at Eagle Harlem designed to help our diverse group of mentors understand the ins and outs of mentoring young men of color. Our mentors range from young finance professionals on Wall Street who were college golfers to older, successful men (who also golf).
Research has shown that mentoring has profoundly positive effects on at-risk students. The statistics don’t lie: young adults facing an opportunity gap are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college if they have a mentor, 46% less likely than their peers to start using drugs, and 81% more likely to participate in sports or extracurriculars.
Most of our older students already have a mentor, and by January all of our young men will be paired up. The Mentoring With a Purpose program will begin with a series of group get-togethers for mentors and students and will evolve into opportunities for one-on-one interactions.
Our volunteer mentors may come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common: the ability to offer a unique perspective on life, golf, emotional development, networking, and college and career readiness.
We expect the relationships formed in this program to pay dividends for years to come.