From Idea to Implementation

THE SPARK

In 2006, the Board of Directors of the Indiana Youth Institute (IYI) updated its strategic plan.
In the effort to further advance the organization’s state-wide impact, the Board challenged IYI
to promote healthy youth development to a broader audience, including the business sector
and K-12 education.

Throughout 2007, IYI explored how to meet this challenge in the most effective and lasting strategies.
Through participation on the Indiana Education Roundtable and the Department of Workforce Development’s
State Workforce Innovation Council, a consistent message inspired IYI to focus on a clear theme:
academic achievement leading to economic self-efficiency.

At the conclusion of 2007, working on a Lilly Endowment funded “State of Our Black Youth” report for the
Indiana Black Expo, IYI made a discovery that converted the clear theme into a program strategy.

In 2002, the African American high school graduation rate in Vigo County was just 50%.
By 2005, the rate had increased to 85%.

The Vigo County School Corporation used two strategies to achieve this result:

• Hire more African American for faculty and staff positions providing African American students with
  more professional role models in their schools, and
• Recruit volunteers to mentor these students

At its February 2008 meeting, the IYI Board of Directors approved the implementation of a planning phase
toward the development of a collaborative, statewide advocacy campaign promoting youth mentoring throughout Indiana.

Immediately, IYI began working with the National Mentoring Partnership to advance its understanding of national resources and promising practices related to mentoring initiatives.

The overarching theme to our findings was that one caring adult paired
with one child for a single hour a week could make a real difference.
Thus, A Better Hour was born.

INPUT FROM PROVIDERS

The first step IYI took to explore A Better Hour (ABH) and mentoring as an operational priority was to take the concept to its community of stakeholders.

IYI CEO Bill Stanczykiewicz and Project Director, December Warren met with partners throughout the state who represented a range of organizations, institutions and businesses. Many were familiar with the great benefits of mentoring and all shared a deep commitment to seeing Indiana’s youth thrive.

The formal planning for A Better Hour began by asking direct service providers what they need through a more formal survey. More specifically, what do they need from a statewide mentoring initiative in order to reach more Hoosier youth with high quality mentoring?

Thirty-two participants responded to the ABH online survey in September, 2008.
Collectively, responding programs provide mentoring to 40 of Indiana’s 92 counties.

DEVELOPING THE PLAN

A state-wide multi-sector Task Force was charged with developing the framework of a three-year plan for A Better Hour. This would work through questions of critical need, identify key result areas, annual milestones and preliminary outcomes.

The Task Force contributed to the ABH framework over a series of five meetings, held in October, November and December of 2008. These participants represented many service providers and other agencies with a stake in the healthy development of Indiana kids. Some of the 100 participants include:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana, • College Mentors for Kids, • Indiana Department of Education,
• Indiana Department of Workforce Development, • Indiana Grantmakers Alliance, • Indiana Association of United Ways, • Indiana Office of Faith-Based and Community Involvement, • Indiana State Teachers Association,
• Kiwanis International, • Marion County Commission on Youth, Inc., • The Moore Foundation, • Old National Bank,
• Senator Richard Lugar’s office, • Starfish Initiative, Inc., • Study Connection, • Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc.

This planning stage also prompted the formal name change from
A Better Hour to The Indiana Mentoring Partnership.
However, the concept of A Better Hour will remain a crucial theme
throughout the public awareness portion of the project.

TODAY

The Indiana Mentoring Partnership is now making connections in communities across the state.
We’re implementing strategies to promote and support quality mentoring every day.

If you’d like to receive updates on recent and upcoming developments, subscribe to our e-newsletter here.