Mentor of the Year

The five finalists chosen for the 2009 Mentor of the Year Award included Jonathan Crawford of Detroit, Mike Fitzpatrick of Sterling Heights, Laura Fletcher of Flint, Herman May of Detroit, and Michele Ripka of Grand Haven.  Jonathan Crawford was selected as this year's award winner.

Jonathan serves as a mentor for two young men, Austin and Raekwon, through the Wayne County 4-H Mentoring Program.  When Jonathan and his mentees get together they often like to attend Oakland University basketball games, local events in the Detroit area, Wayne County 4-H Mentoring Program activities, and other opportunities.  The 2009 winner also works hard with his mentees' parents to work on their emotional impairments and academics and strives to continually improve their overall mentoring relationships.

Jonathan also devotes his time to several other service efforts in the Detroit community, including tutoring for the Academic Achievement Tutoring Service and Pro Literacy Detroit, mentoring through the Burns Seventh-Day Adventist Church Pathfinder Program, and assisting with area Boy and Girl Scouts.

Jonathan highlighted one of his guests in attendance at the 2009 Governor's Service Awards event, a young woman he's mentored for the past 28 years.

"I met her when she was two years old," he said.  "I have taken her under my wing and she made me proud as she graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a teaching degree.  She is now teaching school and I am truly proud of her."

Outstanding Mentoring Program Award

The following five organizations were chosen for the 2009 Outstanding Mentoring Program Award: Art of Leadership Foundation of Redford, Big Brothers Big Sisters Michigan Capital Region of Lansing, Duncan Lake and Kraft Meadows Middle Schools of Caledonia, Keeping the Doors Open of Kalamazoo, and Michigan State University Extension Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring Program of West Olive.  This year's winner was Michigan State University Extension Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring Program.

The Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring Program was created in 1992 to focus on positive youth development.  The program pairs youth in Ottawa County exhibiting delinquent behavior with caring adult mentors in an effort to reduce criminal behavior.  Participation in the program is completely voluntary and youth are referred by probation officers, therapists, and other community agencies through Journey's partnership with the 20^th Judicial Circuit Court, Juvenile Services Division.  The program's matches spend at least two hours a week together participating in a variety of community activities and are expected to continue for at least one year.  Last year, 20 youth and 24 volunteers participated in the program.

The program has documented its continued progress through mentee court records.  During the 2008 program year, 53 percent of mentored youth did not commit any delinquent offenses during the duration of their match and 74 percent of mentored youth decreased the frequency and severity of offenses during the duration of their match.

"I do want to say ‘thank you' to our program staff - to our case managers and AmeriCorps members who work so hard to make it possible for youth in our community to have mentors," said Journey program manager Laura Schleede at the event.

To find out more about all of the 2009 Governor's Service Awards winners, please visit www.michigan.gov/mcsc.