Report: Need for youth mentors great in Lynn

LYNN – Janet Lowrey spends an hour every Thursday at Girls Inc. providing a service that youth workers say is sorely lacking in Lynn – strong mentoring relationships for hundreds of local children.Since last October, Lowrey and Flora Arraheffege, 12, meet in one of Girls Inc.?s High Street classrooms and start their hour by playing a quick game of “rosebuds and thorns.” The exercise is a conversation starter aimed at launching a discussion on good or bad things that happened during both of their days.Most of the hour is spent joking, playing games or learning fun skills like origami.?We made turtles,” Arraheffege said.Mentoring isn?t just fun and games, said Mass Mentoring Partnership Marketing Director Mike McCormick. Working with 250 youth-oriented programs across Massachusetts, the partnership has identified a serious lack of mentors for young people living in Lynn.Its recently released report states 452 children and young adults are being served by mentorship programs – a fraction of those who could benefit, according to the partnership, from mentoring.?The total unmet need for mentors in the city of Lynn is 95 percent based on the number of youth in low-income and single-parent households,” the report stated.Partnership Program Services Director Beth Fraster polled 30 local youth workers during a Thursday meeting for their definitions of a good mentor. The answers they gave her included “good listener” and “someone who wants to get to know me.”The partnership report said one-on-one involvement with a mentor or participation in a youth-oriented program can help young people keep violence, substance abuse and early pregnancy out of their lives.Lowrey, a management trainee at Richardson?s Ice Cream, said she got involved with Girls Inc. after learning about the organization while visiting her sister in Lynn. She said Arraheffege?s humor makes their hour together on Thursday afternoons “the highlight of my week.”?It?s always a positive experience,” she said.Girls Inc.?s mentorship programs includes 50 college-age mentors who work with some of the 1,500 girls the organization serves. Executive Director Deb Ansourlian said the partnership report points to a big mentoring gap that still needs to be filled.?There?s a lack of informal mentoring that happens,” she said.