West Chester Area School District launching new mentor program for parents

WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- It's not your typical mentoring program where students are paired up with someone.

In this case, the West Chester Area School District is launching a new program, making the district parents the focus.

"The goal of this mentorship is to have mentors for parents," said Dr. Una Martin, the interim director of equity for the school district.

"They will act as a resource, as a coach, and as a model to support parents," said Martin.

She says they're looking for about 40 mentors to do things like help new parents moving to the district navigate the school community, connect parents to resources they didn't know were available to them, or be an extra advocate for struggling households.

Martin says, for example, if a parent can't go to a back-to-school night, that's where the mentor could step in.

"The mentor could also speak to the teacher or help the parents have a conversation with the teacher to set up a conference," she said.

Martin says they waited until the students got settled into the school year to determine which students and parents needed the most support to be a part of this program.

Mentors will also get trained before being paired up with parents.

The district is having a community fair this week at Hillside Elementary on the program.