Compeer’s Lunch Buddies program, which is being piloted at Village Elementary, received a large boost in funding recently after receiving notice of a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation.
The grant is for $25,000 and helps fund the program over three years. The program was implemented this year at Village Elementary to help students who are in need of extra support. The program matches up Compeer volunteers with students. That volunteer becomes that student’s adult mentor and spends time with the child each week at school, said Boyce Baumgardner, executive director of Compeer. Lunch Buddies is for children who are identified for the program are in need of social mentorning and relationship skill building. Baumgardner said the program reaches out on a smaller population of children in need of mentors and sets itself apart from other mentoring programs in Emporia.
“This program focuses on a tighter group of children,” he said.
The grant will be used for three phases — training, programming and follow-up.
Baumgardner said the goal of the program is to expand it into the rest of the Emporia school system for the 2009-2010 school year and into outlying areas for the following school year.