(upbeat music) - Friends of the Children Utah break cycles of poverty and adversity by empowering youth through relationships with professional mentors.

Kelsey Lewis is here to tell us more.

Hi, Kelsey.

Welcome.

So this is really a great, great program, because mentorship is so important.

So talk about the ages of the kids you try to target and who you partner them with.

- Of course, of course.

Yes, what's very unique about Friends of the Children is we start early and commit for the long-term.

So we identify children between the ages of four and six, kindergarten age, and pair them, just as you said, with a professional mentor.

And so when I say professional, our mentors are not volunteers.

It is their full-time job to support these youth.

And once we commit to that youth, we follow them for 12 years, all the way through high school graduation.

- Wow.

Okay.

So this is really an amazing thing you do.

And I imagine the results are pretty impressive.

- Yeah, that is truly worthy impact lies.

Because Friends of the Children is part of a national network with 30 years of history, we have longitudinal data to show that when a child is paired with a friend, regardless of the adversity, the trauma they experience, the cycles of poverty that they've been a part of, we can literally help break those cycles and create pathways forward for those children in a transformational way.

Just some of our outcomes.

83% of youth who are paired with a friend for 12 years graduate from high school.

Although, 50% of their parents weren't able to complete high school.

98% of children paired with a friend avoid teen pregnancy, despite the fact that 85% were born to teen parents.

And finally, juvenile justice prevention.

93% of children remained free of the juvenile justice system, despite the fact that 60% of their parents had been incarcerated.

So literally reversing those trajectories and giving them a chance to be successful.

- Incredible, incredible.

I mean, what a great program.

And thank you so much for what you do.

Thanks.

- Yeah, thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about the program, Friends of the Children Utah, how it works, how to get involved, go to friendsofutah.org.

Friendsofutah.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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