Kids and teens are waiting for someone like you to begin
Mentoring in Boone County
We’re here to help you step up and change lives
Boone County Mentoring Partnership updates
News and updates from our blog
Here’s how to mentor and help kids who have suffered abuse
Pick up your blue pinwheels here for April
Megan Hammerle Memorial 5K coming up May 11, 2024
“If I mentor, what would we do?”
A world of opportunities in Central Indiana await
Camping & the outdoors
Camping, hiking, and the outdoors are a great way to spend time with young adults. Explore Indiana’s State Parks for little or no cost to you, or just spend time walking around great regional city parks around Indianapolis.
Sports and fitness
Create strong bonds together by catching an Indians game Downtown, or playing putt-putt mini golf, pickleball, tennis, swimming, or countless other sports. We can help you find facilities and cover some costs, too.
Learning by doing
Explore the art installations at Newfields, take a tour at the Indianapolis Zoo, or just get out in the garage repairing a car, build a deck, or stay inside and bake a tasty dessert. Even simple activities that share skills can be enriching.
Boone County youth need mentors like you
It takes a community
Over 100 active matches are happening right now in Boone County. Dozens more are waiting for a caring adult like you to step up.
Mentoring helps youth become better versions of themselves and can help adult mentors feel younger, do great work, and discover more about themselves, too.
The Boone County Mentoring Partnership pairs adult mentors with kids from all backgrounds, including referrals from schools, community partners, and caring parents who want what’s best for their kids.
You can be the reason a young person:
Catches up academically
Finishes a degree
Uncovers a new activity or passion
Develops a taste for the arts
Explores new parts of Indiana
Goes on interesting trips
Rediscovers who they are and what they can be
Mentoring lasts a lifetime
It all starts with you
Mentoring doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. All we ask is you devote four hours a month, or about an hour a week. Youth ages 7-17 are eligible. The effort may only take 48 hours a year, but the benefits last a lifetime.
Want to help but not ready or can’t commit to mentor?
Donations in time and money are just as valuable
Maybe you travel a lot for work or medical issues prevent you from taking part. You can still donate money to help us cover facility rentals, tickets, and events. We can also use short-term volunteers to help us organize regular “Mentoring Day” events, races, fundraisers, and other activities.
What parents and teachers say
Before and after mentoring was like night and day. Grades improved, attendance went up, and a student at real risk of dropping out of high school became interested in life after college.
— Susan D.
After my husband died a few years ago our son just didn’t have a strong father figure in their life. I knew he needed someone, and while I tried to be that someone, a mentor was able to fill a small part of his life in ways we never thought possible.
— Kate S.
Sometimes kids get picked up by the police for doing silly kid stuff. But other times that behavior escalates into the court system. Nothing is more successful at intervening in a kid’s life than mentoring. I’ve seen mentors turn kids’ lives around in weeks.
— Adam R.
“I thought it would be boring.”
The following transcript was generated with the help of AI. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
At first I thought that it was going to be boring and that it’s just going to be a waste of my time and that this person is never going to be as close to me as my family is. I thought it was going to be boring. I thought it was going to be like a counselor and stuff like that. And I just thought it wasn’t going to be like entertaining or we weren’t going to do anything fun. [MUSIC] It is nothing like that. As soon as they met me, they treated me like family. And they invited me in and just made it easier for me to like go like accept being in there. Once I got to know her she became more like a grandparent to me. She’s welcomed me into her family. She spends a lot of money on me when she doesn’t have to and I love her. She’s like my grandparent. When I first met him my mom took a photo of me and him because I was standing on a chair beside him so I can match his height. Went to a couple of those trainings and there was times that you said you know there was gonna be rough patches or whatever. Well I mean Marion’s been great like you can’t have an easier-going guy than him. My mom’s a single mother and she’s blind and she does everything to care for me and I try my best to help her. Sometimes she has diabetic attacks and I have to help her get through that. Sometimes I’m like stressed at home then he picks me up from my house and we go do something fun and it relieves all that stress. He’s kind of growing up in the area with me and with my kids. He’s hard not to be part of the family. His family is like a second family to me because his kids are like nieces and nephews to me and it’s funny because I watched some of his kids grow up. He’s like a second father figure to me and he helps me through a lot. If you’re on the fence, there’s lots of things we do that don’t matter this much. However you want to look at it, but we do a lot of things that are surely for our enjoyment and fun. While we can have fun, this is more important. [MUSIC] [Music] (music fades) [Music].