A Monthly Report Card on Helping City of Alexandria Kids Succeed through the Children & Youth Community Plan: Focus on Mentoring

News Release
For Immediate Release: March 23, 2023

The City of Alexandria Children & Youth Community Plan 2025 (CYCP) sets long-term priorities and provides a roadmap to success through community-wide coordination and delivery of services to all city children from birth to 21 years-old and their families. CYCP 2025 goals include ensuring that all children, youth and families: 1) are physically safe and healthy 2) are academically successful and career readyand 3) have positive experiences.

Each month, the CYCP highlights one of many areas of progress through the CYCP Report Card. For this month, the CYCP looks back at January to feature mentorship. Research shows that young people who have three or more adults who support them (not including parents/guardians) feel happier and more hopeful, do better in school and are less likely to drink, smoke or do other drugs, especially if the adults can listen without judging.

The Search Institute Survey, Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors, 2019 showed that only 2 in 5 young Alexandrians have three or more caring adults in their lives. Be it a neighbor, uncle, older cousin, coach or volunteer- young people want adult mentors besides their parents to count on and the CYCP 2025 collaborators are working to make it happen.

Visit the CYCP site and see the January Report Card. Meet two mentoring pairs from Casa Chirilagua and A Space of Her Own (SOHO). Find out how CYCP collaborators have worked to increase mentorship in the city, the impact it had, and how individuals and organizations can become involved.

As a partner in the trio comprising the City's Unified Implementation Team, the Department of Community and Human Services CYCP Coordinator is working with Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Health Department to align their three respective five-year strategic plans in areas of shared goals. Learn more about the Unified Implementation Team and their plans.

For inquiries from the news media, please contact CYCP Coordinator Chelsea Eickert at 571.447.8132 or [email protected].

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