Gretchen's Fundraiser - Journey Forward Mentoring

This year our overall giving goal is 150 people donating to Journey Forward Mentoring. Why? Because mentoring is about people showing up for people. It’s a mentor who checks in and asks, “How are things going?” It’s a student who finds a circle of peers who understand where they’re coming from. It’s a partner who opens a door to a new opportunity, resource, or experience. It’s a community that says: We’re here for you.

At Journey Forward, we believe students deserve access to guidance, resources, and connections as they figure out what comes next. Your support helps create those spaces at school, with peers, and beyond.

Journey Forward Mentoring (formerly Leadership Forward Mentoring Program) increases access to higher education and well-paying career paths through our high school and postsecondary mentoring programs. We work with students of color from low-income households in Dallas who are historically underrepresented in higher education and lack adequate college and career readiness support. 

We provide one-on-one support that brings each student into focus. We first engage with our students in high school through our Next Gen Mentoring program. Each student is matched with an adult volunteer mentor. Mentors help our students navigate high school, explore higher education and different career paths, and improve their understanding of what information, resources, and opportunities exist to support their success. When our students graduate, they are invited to join Edge, our postsecondary bridge program that walks alongside our students until they obtain their postsecondary degree or credential. Students receive group coaching and one-on-one college advising, participate in social gatherings, and receive a semester stipend to assist with living expenses.  

Our high-touch approach to mentoring creates strong relationships that help close the college and career readiness gap. We keep each relationship on track through regular check-ins with students and mentors; listen to and include parents; train our mentors on the social and emotional development of youth, effective communication practices, and racial inequities as they relate to our students, so they can build authentic relationships; and offer lessons, resources, and relevant information to our mentors so they can be effective. This in-depth support provides our student participants the benefit of having the one-on-one attention of someone who has critical knowledge and resources over an extended period. Each of our students has the focused attention of an adult who is vested in their success through high school and their postsecondary pathway.

We believe that students should lead the decision-making process for their future, and our role is to provide them with the right information, resources, and guidance so they can make informed decisions. We meet our students where they are at and develop long-term, meaningful relationships with them that extend beyond high school and their postsecondary education and help them thrive, lead fulfilling lives, and become mentors themselves to a new generation of students.