Mentoring saved 38-year-old Gary Clemons’ life.
Separated from his mother at age 5, running with violent gangs at 15, father to a visually disabled child at 19, and homeless at 24 — Clemons couldn’t imagine that the mentors who helped him mount these challenges would guide him on to help lead possibly the most hyped and fastest-growing mentorship program in the nation: Friends of The Children.
Founded in 1993, the Portland, Oregon, nonprofit pairs kids between the ages of 4 and 6 with paid, trained mentors for 12 years. They have received major infusions of cash recently from the federal government and philanthropic heavyweights like the Ballmer Group, while celebrities like Russell Wilson and Ciara are chipping in to see the model replicated nationwide. The PBS show “Visionaries” recently aired a glowing profile of the organization.
[For more on this story by Michael Fitzgerald, go to https://chronicleofsocialchang...toring-ballmer/30716]
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