Volunteer: Mentoring & Transportation
The Initiative
Nurturing Neighborhood is a pilot program of the City of Promise with the goal of creating “extended family" units to support our Westhaven/10th and Page families. The biggest challenges that face our families are those of capacity. Time, money, and non-monetary
resources are often stretched thin, and our kids and families typically don’t have the extended network of support that their peers are privy to.
The purpose of the Nurturing Neighborhood initiative is to create “extended families” around our community members in the hopes of helping them fill in gaps and increase their social capital, without putting a large time burden on any single volunteer.
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How it Works
Many of us grew up with the luxury of extended family members or friends who became “family” to fill in gaps when our parents or caretakers were unable to. You could find rides to and from school and practices and activities, you had someone to watch you if a
parent needed to work late. In the best cases, you had access to aunts, uncles, and grandparents, all of whom added something special to your upbringing
To replicate this, 4-5 volunteers of diverse backgrounds are assigned to a single family. As a group, these volunteers are able to support both scheduled and randomly-occurring needs of the family.
The initiative reduces non-monetary barriers to opportunity, like transportation to extracurriculars, childcare while you take a class, or a ride to work when your car is in the shop.
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