Pals Mentoring2-3 hours/week. Minimum commitment 1 year
Pals is a voluntary one-on-one mentoring program. Our program focuses on providing young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement, positive role modeling, and activities. Volunteer mentors are 15 years of age or older. Youth in the program can be from K-8th grade. Both volunteers and youth go through a thorough interview and our mentors are all screened and trained. A mentor match is made according to activity interests, personality traits, individual likes and dislikes, location and shared life experiences. Contact Patty Schaffner at (970) 945-9300 or
pschaffner@youthzone.com.
Restorative Justice ProgramApproximately 4 hours/monthRestorative Justice is a wonderful opportunity for community members to help kids who have committed crimes to better understand how their decisions impact the people around them, what their assets and strengths are and how they can repair harm done to the victim, their parents, the community and themselves. The Restorative Justice Program happens within the context of court referrals, with youthful offenders. For youth who are in the Restorative Justice Program, about 88% do not re-offend as juveniles.
After an initial training, we would like volunteers to participate in the role of co-facilitators, surrogate victims and community members. The Restorative Justice Coordinator schedules a Restorative Justice Circle, which includes:
- Two volunteer co-facilitators
- One volunteer community member
- The victim (or a volunteer surrogate victim
- The client
- The client's parent(s)
- A police officer (and/or a school representative if the incident happened at school)
The group meets for approximately two hours. Each person tells his/her story and talks about how the incident has affected him/her. Restorative Justice Circles generally happen after school (4:00 PM) in the town/location most convenient for the victim. On average, we have about two Restorative Justice Circles per month.
If you are interested in becoming a Restorative Justice volunteer, please contact Restorative Justice Coordinator Lisa Sobke at
lsobke@youthzone.comor at (970) 274-1049. As a volunteer, you will be notified by email distribution list of upcoming Restorative Justice Circles, and you can participate as a community member or surrogate victim. For volunteers who wish to become more involved, after participating several times, there may be opportunities in the future to be trained as a facilitator.
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