Latino Mentoring Program Receives $220 Grand
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002–A New Britain mentoring organization has received a $220,000 grant from the Department of Justice to create a program for Latino students at three of the town’s schools.
Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, which operates New Britain’s Latino Initiative mentoring program, will use the grant to create a program for Latino children 6 to 14 years old, providing a few hours of mentoring a week.
Previous grants required Latino Initiative to target children 12 to 14 years old, and this is the first time Nutmeg has offered mentoring to younger Latino children. The Justice Department announced the grant last week.
Nutmeg program co-coordinator Susan McGann said the new program should further help in reaching New Britain’s steadily increasing Latino population, adding, “There’s definitely a need here.”
Forty-eight percent of New Britain public school students are Latino, and 65 percent of those students live in non-English speaking homes, McGann said.
The new program will match children from Roosevelt Middle School, Smalley Academy and Smith Elementary with mentors to help with individual goals, like academic success, improved social skills and drug use prevention.
Teachers and social workers will nominate students for the program, and those students will go through an application process with their parents.
Nutmeg will mentor a minimum of 25 children, but McGann said she’s hoping to take on more once planning is further along.
Nutmeg is also looking for mentors, who don’t have to be Latino or speak fluent Spanish, to supplement student volunteers from Central Connecticut State University, McGann said.
The grant is part of $14 million administered by the Justice Department’s Juvenile Mentoring Program, which the department estimates will serve 5,000 at-risk youths in 38 states.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
