Changing lives with K-12 mentorship

For young people whose lives are churned by forces far outside their control and whose comforting consistencies always feel tenuous, Friends of the Children Tampa Bay offers a rare point of solidity. A friend – and a Friend.

Friends are professional mentors. A single Friend starts working with a single child as young as four, meeting multiple hours a week, and in most cases, stays that child’s Friend through high school.

“I think the beautiful thing about what we do is that we’re supporting the child, but we’re also integrating ourselves into a household, we're working in the schools and also in the communities,” Executive Director Jessica Heck said. “What we do is intended to create generational change.”

Raymond James, through its Ready for School philanthropic program, is now partnering with Friends of the Children Tampa Bay. Through this partnership, the nonprofit organization has been able to expand its in-school learning program. It is also able to continue recruiting, training and retaining qualified professional mentors.

“Raymond James is also giving us the opportunity to show a greater presence in the community,” Heck said. “We’re a best kept secret. For the sake of all the children we could be helping, we’d like not to be.” Currently, the organization has a roster of six full-time Friends who may work with up to 10 different children each.

“We want every kid to be able to have a Friend who needs one,” Heck said.

Nicole Hisler, the president of Raymond James Charitable, has been a Friends of the Children Tampa Bay board member since 2000. As a mother, and as a professional supporting philanthropists and their causes, Hisler was drawn to Friends of the Children for its clarity of purpose and potential to create lasting change.

“Friends change lives,” Hisler said. “They’re helping children navigate their feelings and their fears. They’re addressing bullying and helping teachers see who these kids are. They’re having disciplinary conversations. If a child can’t sleep, isn’t eating, needs someone to talk to, they have their Friend.

“It’s changing these children’s lives, and it’s changing communities. It’s an easy story to tell. It’s an incredible organization to champion.”

Focused on early intervention

Friends of the Children Tampa Bay works primarily with children in the foster system. Hillsborough County, Florida, has among the largest foster populations in the nation. Children are selected based on what the organization calls ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. These experiences lead children to be less likely to graduate high school, more likely to have run-ins with the justice system, and more likely to get pregnant as teenagers.

Early intervention means keeping them off a path that leads to lifelong hardships. Each child has annual goals covering topics like education, health and well-being. Some children struggle with other issues like anxiety, and Friends work with them alongside other service providers to help.

“For that 12-year period we work with a child, the Friend is adapting their guidance to the child’s needs,” Heck said. On top of that, Friends become a fixture in children’s lives. The organization has a slogan: “12+ years – no matter what.”

Friends of the Children was founded in 1993 by Duncan and Cindy Campbell in Portland, Oregon. Duncan Campbell grew up in challenging circumstances. After becoming a successful entrepreneur, he set out to help children caught in similar circumstances. He created a foundation to identify potential intervention strategies and determined that “the strongest protective factor a child can have is a long-term, nurturing relationship with a consistent and caring adult.”

“In the three decades since, Friends of the Children has held fast to that demanding philosophy,” Heck said.

The Tampa Bay Chapter, founded in 2014, is celebrating its first cohort of high school graduates.

“I was recently in a meeting with a few of our Friends and the kiddos, and one of the young men was talking about his relationship with his Friend,” Heck said. “He’s known him for 12 years. He said when he was five or six he couldn’t figure out how, though he kept being moved around, his Friend always knew where to find him.

“But he knew someone was always going to be there. He knew his Friend was always going to be there.”