Friends of the Children Central Oregon mentor Aaron Hinkley plays catch with one of the kids he mentors through the program while at the organization’s ranch outside Bend in 2023. 

A program that mentors kids for over a decade has launched a summer leadership program for its young teens.

Friends of the Children Central Oregon, which started in 2017, hires mentors to work with under-resourced kids starting at age 5 for a few hours a week, both in school and out in the community. Now, the kids who were the first ones in the program are about to enter middle school, and organizers began talking about programming specifically for them. Counselors in training for summer programming for younger kids seemed like the perfect fit.

“I decided to take the counselor in training model and pilot it with our 12, 13-year-olds. And really the goal of the program is to help provide them with leadership skills, but also job readiness skills,” said Carolyn Nesbitt, Friends’ program director. Chloe Manke, the organization’s development director, also helped lead the interview process.

Manke and Nesbitt want to scale the program in the coming years, so kids move through junior and senior counselor roles with experience. Kids interviewed at local parks and came prepared to talk about their strengths and weaknesses, how they want to use these skills in future settings like babysitting, what skills they want to focus on this summer and more. Manke and Nesbitt asked what the kids thought they’d be doing in the role, because they wanted to make sure they knew what they were getting into.

Several kids said they want to learn to work with kids who aren’t their siblings, which Manke said showed insight to realize that it can be different to work with siblings than other kids.

The kids had to fill out an application and get the go-head from their parents or guardians. Though the program has eight slots, thirteen showed up to interview.

“We panicked because you just don’t want to tell any of them no,” said Manke.

Summer camps and art days

One teen decided not to continue, and Manke and Nesbitt were able to fill eight full-time slots and give the other four a part-time or substitute schedule.

Friends of the Children Central Oregon’s summer programs, which have space for kindergartners through fifth graders, are generally half-day camps with days set aside for a specialized subject like art or fishing. They all take place either out in the community or at the organization’s ranch on the Old Bend-Redmond Highway. Though the kids are joining from all over Central Oregon, activities will take place in Bend, Redmond and La Pine.

Activities will include helping younger kids throughout the day, helping to set up or clean up and playing games with kids during downtime. At the end of the summer, Manke and Nesbitt will chat with the kids to find out what worked, what didn’t and what they learned from the experience. The teen leaders will work toward a reward at the end of the summer that organizers will help with, such as a spot at a volleyball camp or a trip with their mentor to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Though the leadership program has seed funding for this year, Manke is hoping to provide proof of concept to donors for future funding.

“The hope is that we get some funding this summer, at least commitments so that we can plan out the next two years,” she said. “So the idea is that I will have is asking folks to make a two-year commitment just so that we know that we have that funding.”

Organizers plan to launch the program by the middle of July, while camps run through the middle of August. Nesbitt and Manke want the kids to have fun while building leadership skills. They’re also hoping that the experience sparks an interest that may lead to a career.

“There’s this hunger to build confidence, build a skillset that is valuable to them, to themselves, to the workforce,” said Manke.