The RHEF has awarded a $1,000 mini-grant to the Linden Avenue Middle School’s Mentoring Club and a $700 mini-grant to the high school’s Mentoring Club. The aims of both groups are identical: to help develop a genuine, caring connection between at-risk students and a group of adult volunteers — teachers, staff and administrators — from the district. And in that way, to show students they are accepted and valued.

Though both groups are identified as “clubs,” a more accurate description would be “programs.” Though, like clubs, they are voluntary, they are not driven by a student’s interests so much as by his or her needs. Students are selected based on the risk factors in their lives and involved in creative activities that allow them to bond with the adult volunteers through activities such as community breakfasts and creating holiday crafts.