$3 MILLION GOES TO STUDY OF MENTORING PROGRAM

By Tom Hallman Jr., The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
McClatchy-Tribune Regional News
17 August 2007
The Oregonian (MCT)

Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services.

Aug. 17--A program founded by a Portland businessman that pairs at-risk boys and girls with paid adult mentors has received a federal grant of nearly $3 million so researchers can see if it works.

"This is a huge recognition by one of the most significant institutions in America," Duncan Campbell, who founded Friends of the Children, said of the grant from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. "This is a huge step for us, and it's been a long process getting the grant. I think at least seven years."

The institute will parcel out the money during the next five years to the Oregon Social Learning Center, a Eugene nonprofit, to fund the study. Senior scientists from around the country will work with the center.

The program, founded in 1993, now helps more than 600 children and teens through seven chapters in Portland, Klamath Falls, Seattle, New York City, Boston, Cincinnati and San Francisco.

Campbell, who grew up in Northeast Portland with alcoholic parents, started Friends of the Children with $1.5 million of his own money. He hired full-time employees -- with salaries comparable to those of first-year teachers -- as "friends" for at-risk youngsters, convinced the children needed support to avoid being sucked into the juvenile justice system. He wanted to avoid volunteers, saying they sometimes quit when the novelty wears off.

Smaller studies have shown the program works, but Campbell said an in-depth study is crucial.

"If you want to get to the next level and be accepted by large foundations and the government, you need to have a study of this nature," he said. "It's the stamp of approval."