Agency - Academic Mentoring Program

The Academic Mentoring Program is designed to complement the role that parent or guardian(s) and teaching staff play in a student’s life by providing adult mentors to students in select schools within the Iowa City Community School District. Mentors are caring individuals who, along with parents or guardians, help to provide students with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and a constructive example ultimately building positive connections in the community for our students.

Description:
The Academic Mentoring Program (AMP) is a program in the Iowa City Community School District that is focused around helping students improve their academic and social skills through a combination of mentoring and case management services. Students in grades 7-12 at the following schools will be invited to participate in this program: Northwest Jr. High, South East Jr. High, West Senior High and City Senior High schools.

Students in AMP will be matched one-on-one with a volunteer mentor who has been screened by Big Brothers Big Sisters. The mentor/student matches will have the opportunity to meet once a week at the student’s school, along with the option to do summer activities together in the community. All activities will be planned around helping students enjoy learning and achieve continued success in school!

Each mentor/student match will also be provided support from a Site Coordinator from United Action for Youth (UAY) who will be in charge of monitoring and supporting the match. The Site Coordinator will also be responsible for keeping parent/guardian(s) and teacher(s) actively involved in the student’s individual mentoring plan.

History:
The Iowa City Community School District is the 5th largest district in Iowa with an enrollment of approximately 13,000 students at 25 area schools. The Academic Mentoring Program was developed in 2005 under a grant the school district received from the U.S. Dept. of Education to provide an additional level of support to 4th-8th grade students in 7 of our highest need buildings. In 2006, the school district received an additional grant from the Iowa Dept. of Public Health to extend the Academic Mentoring Program into both of the area high schools. We were then able to serve eligible 4th-12th graders with consistency as they moved through the difficult transitions from elementary school to junior high school and junior high school to high school. As AMP has developed, it has become clear that the highest need for mentors is at the junior high and high schools levels which is why our efforts have become focused on supporting 7th-12th graders in the ICCSD.

Contact people:

Coreen Frank, Program Director, (phone), (email) Jess Harris, Project Manager, (phone), (email)

Address:

1725 North Dodge Street Iowa City, IA 52245 (See a map)