Just One Starfish – June Update

Posted by Erin Jackson in Blog

Today I had a conversation with a contact at the local school district’s Title I office that just gave me goosebumps. (Title I schools are schools with free/reduced lunch programs and generally lower income families.)

Short background: starting this fall, I am launching a mentoring program called “Just One Starfish.”Just One Starfish is a mentoring program that pairs up local high school sophomores and juniors with local, at-risk 5th/6th graders for one-on-one mentoring.  High school students are trained on what it means to be a mentor and given guidance through the process.  Ideally, mentoring relationships last at least 2 years as their “stars” go through the turbulent middle school years.

Through training and encouraging high school student mentors, who in turn encourage and care for elementary school student “stars”, we dream of transforming lives – one mentoring relationship at a time.

Short update:

Summer vacation has slowed a little of the project’s progress for various reasons – youth ministers are busy, youth are on trips, schools and admin offices have limited hours, my own three kids are underfoot all of the time – but progress is still being made each day.

In my goosebump-filled conversation today, the local Title I contact person asked me if Just One Starfish would be looking just for “traditional leaders” to become mentors (what’s meant by traditional leaders? They’re the superstar students who always seem to get picked for things), or if there would be opportunities for high school students to become mentors who might not have other opportunities to be leaders. 

See, that is part of the beauty of one-on-one mentoring.  High school students who are mentors learn what it is like to be a positive influence who can transform someone’s life.  And you don’t have to be a superstar student or president of a club in order to be an encourager and a positive role model.  Just One Starfish will not only help 5th/6th graders, it also has the potential to give high school students who might otherwise get passed over a tremendous opportunity to grow and lead.  That, my friends, is so exciting!

There will be more conversations soon – I talk to a high school principal this Thursday, so please pray for that to go well.

For now, I just wanted to give a little update and a thank you for all of my friends who’ve been faithfully praying for this new ministry.

God is moving in big ways!  If you’d like to help out in some way, or if you know someone with great insights, feel free to drop me a note!

In Christ,

Erin