Efforts underway to recruit mentors for Cranston students

By John Howell
Posted 11/18/15

Celeste Comeau-Mullane knows a mentor, even one who sees a student no more than an hour in the school week, can make a tremendous difference in a life.

A Warwick resident who has coordinated the …

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Efforts underway to recruit mentors for Cranston students

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Celeste Comeau-Mullane knows a mentor, even one who sees a student no more than an hour in the school week, can make a tremendous difference in a life.

A Warwick resident who has coordinated the annual spring historic walking tour of Pawtuxet Village for several years, Comeau-Mullane assumed the role of directing the Cranston mentoring program run by the Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership earlier this month. Illustrating how important a mentor can be, Comeau-Mullane relates how a seventh-grade student suddenly tuned out from school. His grades dropped, as did his attendance. Teachers and school administrators couldn’t identify the problem.

But in elementary school, the boy had had a mentor. The mentor carried over to junior high school. The mentor met with school guidance officials and assured the student he would be there regardless of whether he came to school or not. The mentor didn’t let the student down, and the student made it a point to come to school not to disappoint the mentor.

The Cranston program has 38 mentors, a number Comeau-Mullane hopes to increase, as the need is there. The majority of mentors come from Taco, Coastway Community Bank and the Cranston Police Department. All three allow their employees to take an hour out of their workweek to mentor a student without a loss in pay. She said there are mentors at Arlington, Eden Park, Woodridge, Orchard Farm, Waterman, Dutemple and Gladstone elementary schools, as well as at Bain, Park View and Cranston East.

There is a need for additional mentors at all levels, Comeau-Mullane said, but greatest at middle school where students face peer pressure and the challenges of their changing bodies. She hopes to develop the program to the point where mentors are permitted to meet with their mentees after school hours. This is done in Warwick, but those entrusted to participate in “off-site” mentoring as well as the events they participate in, such as attending a sporting event, require prior approval.

“We’ll be taking a look at what works at the high school level and developing our own support network,” she said.

As for recruiting mentors, Comeau-Mullane said she would meet with Cranston Senior Center Executive Director Sue Stenhouse and welcomes leads to boost the ranks of mentors. She is also talking to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

She has set a personal goal of doubling the number of Cranston mentors by the end of the academic year. She has help from those in the school system who see the benefits of the program and are prepared to recruit mentors with her.

Gladstone Principal Susan Buonanno is one of the believers. She said students look forward to spending time with their mentors.

“It’s a constant, a relationship beyond their families,” she said. The school has a “mentoring corner” where mentors meet their mentees, talk about what is going on in their lives, play games and may even work on some academics.

To recruit mentors, Buonanno called on Arlene McNulty, who started the Warwick program, ran the mentoring partnership and was overseeing the Cranston program last year. Together, they approached Taco and invited a delegation to see the school.

It worked.

“They toured the school and when they saw the diversity, they all signed up,” Buonanno said.

Comeau-Mullane is impressed by the dedication of mentors and what they put into the program as volunteers.

“They’re thanking you for allowing them to do this, and they’re the ones giving,” she said.

A lot of giving has also gone into sustaining the Cranston program.

Earlier this year, Coastway Community Bank announced it is pledging $100,000 to the Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership, with the funding used to support the expansion of Cranston’s mentoring program.

Coastway’s donation was made in honor of Peter Koch, who at the time was a member of the bank’s board of directors as well as the Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership board.

The donation is being disbursed in increments of $25,000 per year over four years, beginning this year.

The bank has been a consistent supporter of mentoring, with more than 50 of its employees mentoring throughout the state. Participating organizations in the mentoring partnership as well as the partnership that runs programs match more than 5,000 young people throughout the state with mentors.

Comeau-Mullane is working from partnership offices in Apponaug and may be reached at 401-732-7700.

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