The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

A DeKalb County youth mentoring program earned a statewide award for its efforts to help at-risk children, officials announced Wednesday.

Helping Our Pupils Excel, known as HOPE, received the 2009 Indiana Youth Investment Award from the Indiana Youth Institute, a non-profit organization in Indianapolis that promotes the healthy development of children by serving Indiana institutions and people who work on their behalf. The DeKalb program is one of 10 recipients of the award statewide and was selected from nearly 200 applicants.

HOPE is a school-based program that pairs at-risk youths with adult volunteers. They meet one-on-one once a week for an hour, said Judy Sorg, program director. “It’s primarily a friendship. Secondarily, there’s some academic tutoring,” Sorg said.

HOPE is housed in five elementary schools and two middle schools and pairs 105 students with 80 mentors, Sorg said.

“This outstanding collaboration between schools and members of the community is striving to help at-risk children reach their full potential,” Indiana Youth Institute President and CEO Bill Stanczykiewicz said in a statement. “These young people are overcoming social, personal and educational challenges that would likely trip them up if their volunteer mentors had not taken the time to build caring relationships with them.”

Volunteers with the program and school officials believe HOPE allows students to make connections with adults. Waterloo Elementary School Principal Mark Benbow believes the program largely contributed to an increase in the school’s ISTEP+ scores, according to a news release.

“The students respond to the one-on-one attention,” volunteer Chuck Schmidt said in a statement. “Plus, they know the mentor is volunteering to be there and is not being paid. That means they know the mentor really cares.”

ksoderlund@jg.net