TeamMates a program we should embrace

A 30-year anniversary for anything is worthy of a celebration, and there isn’t a program more worthy of that recognition than TeamMates. The hugely successful mentoring program for youths is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2021-22.
    No one in Nebraska is more loved than Tom Osborne, who founded TeamMates with his wife Nancy in 1991. The legendary Husker football coach, well-known for turning so many lives around on his football teams, expanded those same efforts with TeamMates. Interestingly, he began TeamMates with 22 members of his football team that year.
    The program was introduced in Chase County Schools eight years ago, and now operates in more than 170 school districts across five states.
        However, the program is at a crossroads here as it looks for a coordinator to replace CCS’s two guidance counselors, one of whom has been a co-coordinator since the beginning at CCS. Are you someone willing to step up and fill that spot?
    The program coordinator oversees the mentoring on the local level. With their positions as school counselors, Trent Herbert and Cathy Hanna have a lot on their plates. The school board addressed the issue of finding a new coordinator at their meeting this month, and are continuing to seek out a new coordinator.
    TeamMates is a program all of us should support when you consider how much a child’s life can be changed with another interested adult in their circle of support. In some cases, that mentor can make a significant difference.
    A 2011 Gallup study found that TeamMates mentors can have a major impact on the level of hope their mentee has. The study showed that by simply showing up, week after week, mentors build on that sense of hope in their mentee. Ninety-one percent of mentees reported higher levels of hope as a result of their mentor.
    Osborne practices what he preaches. Years later, he still visits with his two mentees. He knows that both people benefit from the mentor/mentee relationship, even years later. In a given year, it’s reported that TeamMates will be involved in mentoring 10,000 youths. We can’t put a price tag on that.
    Some of the discussion about TeamMates here is the possibility of providing a salary for the coordinator. The board is considering that as something the school might contribute. It would be worth the spending to find the right person for that position. You just have to look at some of the statistics to also support TeamMates and its program here:
    85% of TeamMates mentees improved their attendance.
    75% of TeamMates mentees had fewer behavioral incidents.
    54% of TeamMates mentees saw an increase in their course performance.
    In these days of questionable material being introduced in many schools, TeamMates is one program we should embrace.