What Demographic Do You Serve?
The need for the Stone of Hope Youth Mentorship Program is to guide disadvantaged youths from low-income families to a better future. We provide a safe place, positive role models, a learning environment, and basic resources to help them and their families. We provide weekly mentoring, monthly service projects, and an annual summer camp to encourage them throughout the year.
Our current mentoring program is made up of 92% Latinos and people of color. This means our impact is heavily focused on helping multicultural communities that are often disproportionately impacted by socio economic factors. Approximately one out of every seven people in West Valley City live below the poverty line. Additionally, 45% of students in the local school district in West Valley City live in poverty. Stone of Hope Youth focuses primarily on helping this population of students with our programs and, additionally, their families by providing groceries, gift cards for clothing, as well as eyeglasses to families who can’t afford them. This is also why the financial literacy program is important for our youth. Most, if not all, of our youth will be the first in their family to learn how to give, save, spend, and invest.
The youth in our program come primarily from single-parent, minority homes and live below the poverty line. They are young males ages 11-18. Many of the families of our youth enrolled are most at risk for being recruited by gangs and for failing to graduate high school. Our twelve volunteer mentors and five directors guide students who are struggling with social and economic setbacks and provide resources to assist them in completing their basic education. Because of our belief in these boys, knowing that each one has the potential to succeed - despite their circumstance - we are committed to seeing these boys through their elementary, middle school, and high school careers and to provide scholarships for college and trade school post high school graduation.