Kids Hope

In 2016 the Deputy Principal of Floreat Primary School invited All Saints Floreat Uniting Church to be part of the Kids Hope program. Amanda Brown and Rhondda Tilbrook met members of North Beach Baptist Church who were involved in the program with North Beach Primary School. They explained how the program works – volunteers from the church spend an hour a week with a student who could benefit from one-to-one mentoring. During the hour time is spent on academic work, provided by the teachers, and on ‘fun’ activities.

Kids Hope is Australia’s largest early intervention, school-based mentoring program. Since starting in 2004, it has provided care and support to thousands of children across Australia through church volunteers.

In 2018, Monash University conducted a study evaluating the impact of Kids Hope, with 96% of teachers indicating that they believe that Kids Hope had a positive impact on the health and well-being of the mentored student. It is a reliable and easy to implement program, valued by teachers and parents.

Kids Hope equips congregations by providing high quality training, resources, and support for the volunteers. They establish the relationship between the school and the local congregation. It is a registered ChildSafe program. There is an administrative cost for joining Kids Hope but congregations should not see this a deterrent as the Uniting Generations Network does have some grant money available to help congregations with programs such as this.

Some mentors from All Saints Floreat have provided feedback on their experiences:

Kids Hope helps build relationships between congregations, students, their families and teachers. It is an easy to run program, low energy- high impact, and is very suitable for older congregations to engage with the younger generations. All Saints Floreat are now in their seventh year and enjoy seeing their mentorees grow.

You can see Amanda Brown from All Saints Floreat, talking about her experience as a Kids Hope mentor at https://vimeo.com/688637713
For more information on how your congregation could get involved in Kids Hope, contact Melissa French at melissa@kidshope.org.au or Julie Ridden, Children, Families, Youth and Young Adult Co-ordinator for the Uniting Church WA at julie.ridden@wa.uca.org.au

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