The U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools has awarded a three-year Mentoring Grant valued at more than $580,000 to Spring Branch ISD’s Community Relations Dept. to support its award-winning district Mentor Programs.
The grant will extend resources provided by the Spring Branch Education Foundation, a longtime program supporter, and the Communities Foundation of Texas, which awarded the district a separate grant earlier this year.
“Grant funds will enable us to provide more support to campuses, provide stipends for campus mentor coordinators and support the continued growth and development of our programs,” SBISD Community Relations Officer Linda Buchman told administrators and Board of Trustees members recently.
“We want to thank Houston Mayor Bill White and our more than two dozen partners who wrote letters of support on our behalf when we wrote this application. We thank our campus leaders and coordinators, our community-based mentor coordinators and the hundreds of volunteers who give so generously of their time and resources to make this program possible,” she also stated.
The SpringBoard Mentor Program now serves about 800 students “on the brink of success” enrolled at 20 SBISD campuses. The program has grown from 40 mentors in 2002, and was named the winner of the National Civic Star Award for the state of Texas three years ago.
The Collegiate Challenge Mentor Program serves more than 50 students on three high school campuses and helps students enroll in colleges and universities and apply for scholarships. It was named an Exemplar Program by the Texas High School Project earlier this year. For details on these programs or the new grant, contact the Community Relations Dept. at 713-464-1511, ext. 2286.