InvestinYOUth Mentorship Program at Mason

Shortcuts

• Address
• Alerts
• Contact The University
• Claim ownership or report listing

• 

  Want your university to be the top-listed University? Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.

  Country:

  City:

  

Our Story

The state of Virginia, specifically Northern Virginia, is diversifying rapidly. As a result, it is facing pressing economic, social and cultural transformations. In lieu of budget shortfalls for education, the rapid shift of demographics within the Fairfax County Public School system has posed new challenges in ensuring that each student receives the social support needed to foster success and growth, especially for students facing environmental barriers to success.

Emerging Trends in Fairfax County: •Among Fairfax County Public School students, approximately 32% of kindergartners in the 2013-14 school year were economically disadvantaged as well as 21% of seniors. •Poverty among children (under 18 years of age) increased by 27% from 2008 to 2013. This is roughly 4,200 more children in poverty (15,467 versus 19,704 children respectively). •Since the start of the economic downturn, an additional 7,792 children have slipped into poverty, bringing the total number to over 23,000, or 8.7 percent, of Fairfax’s children. •Between 2000 and 2009, the number of persons below poverty in Fairfax County increased 33%. The number of Fairfax County residents in poverty is approximately 65,000 •Since the start of the economic downturn, an additional 7,792 children have slipped into poverty (as of 2015), bringing the total number to over 23,000, or 8.7 percent, of Fairfax’s children. •The number of families who are slightly above the poverty rate (125% of poverty) grew over the past five years (by 24,000 individuals approximately). •From 2008 to 2013, the proportion of the Fairfax County population living below the poverty level increased from 4.8% to 5.8% (from 47,832 to 64,851 residents). The county’s poverty rate is relatively low; however, due to its large population the county has more residents living in poverty than any other single jurisdiction in Virginia (64,851 residents in 2013). •The number of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in Fairfax County Public Schools increased by approximately 10,000 individuals from 2008 to 2013. English language proficiency continues to be important and is linked to economic success – among individuals in poverty, almost 2/3 speak a language other than English at home. This illustrates that our community has to adapt and address the shifting social landscape preemptively to maintain FCPS’ status as one of the top leaders in education within Virginia and the USA. Our Vision: To adapt to these rapid changes while minimizing fiscal impacts, we believe in providing community-based social-support programs administered through Public University institutions. Programs such as this are necessary to meet the needs of the influx of at-risk youth students within the Fairfax County Education System. Such social programs would provide free mentoring support, character development, career/academic development, and exposure to inspire teens to graduate high school and guide them through their options in post-secondary education. By administering programs such as this through University institutions, with the help of private community business', significant funds will be saved both in long-term and short-term within local government. It would utilize the infrastructure of pre-existing institutions, capitalize on university students who want to better shape their world, and provide community engagement and support from stakeholder's who play a role in investing in youth as both a valuable moral standpoint, and investment in their future workforce. Once expanded, this would become a transformative and tactical initiative to turn Virginia’s Public Academic University institutions into not only places of academia, but also community havens that nurture societal-well-being and progress. Who We Are: Created within Roosevelt @ Mason, a policymaking think-tank at Mason, the InvestinYOUth Mentorship program endeavors to foster public-private partnerships, utilize pre-existing resources, and recruit accomplished George Mason University mentors to inspire, advise, and build meaningful relationships with High School students toward the goal of promoting accessibility of opportunity for all youth within FCPS and encourage higher graduation rates, by overcoming social, economic, or linguistic challenges a student may face. The InvestinYOUth mentorship program is very excited and enthusiastic to announce it’s launching of a mentorship partnership with Mountain View Alternative High School, a Fairfax County Public School in Centerville, VA this Spring 2017, for our first endeavor into building sustainable partnerships throughout our community! With the coordination and generous help of Apple Federal Credit Union, FCPS, and Mountain View HS administration as community partners, we aim to gather a variety of stakeholders to coalesce toward providing opportunities of development for students in the High School age range of 10-12th grades as students begin to reflect on what the future may hold for their lives. We endeavor to ensure accessibility of our program by traveling to the school on a weekly basis to provide 1-1 mentor- mentee relationships, as well as engaging in larger team-building cohort activities.

More information can be found at:http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hscouncil/pdf/trends_emergingneeds_jan15.pdf