The Forge provides high quality mentors from Clark County who represent a variety of backgrounds and interests.
Some people think that only “certain kinds” of students need mentors. The reality is that every teenager needs about 5 trusted adults in their life. Many Forge students are high performing students, but underneath the surface are deeply anxious about what is coming next. Other Forge students don’t have a single adult that they can trust in their lives. We know these things because our students tell us this.
How do you select your mentors?
Not just anyone can qualify to be a Forge mentor. Our mentors are people that are well known by either our trainers and board members or people that we trust. We do not go beyond those circles of relationships. This limits the numbers of students that we can take into our programs, but it makes sure that Forge mentors are good people that work well with teens.
What safety procedures do you have in place?
All of our mentors undergo background checks and are trained on abuse prevention and reporting law. They are also given a series of mandatory guidelines for interacting with students and may only meet with a student in a public place after making parents and two other adults in our program aware of the meeting. We also train and inform students about these policies and procedures so that they are aware these exist for their own protection. We believe it is important for students in the program to have a clear understanding of what normal abuse prevention standards and boundaries are wherever they go. We consider everyone that is a part of the Forge to be a mandatory reporter. These policies exceed most standard organizational requirements and insurance requirements.
How do you pair the students with their mentors?
We carefully read and respond to a student’s Forge application and then match them with a mentor that we think will be a good fit. Students can always let us know if a pairing isn’t working.
How often would a student meet with a mentor?
Our minimum requirement is one meeting per month. Mentors follow up with students on personal goals and the trainings that we do during the year. Some mentors and students choose to meet more frequently or to explore topics in greater detail. Some of our mentors have attended graduations, enlistments, and even family dinners with their student’s family. It’s up to students, parents, and mentors to decide what they are comfortable with.
Jennifer Jones, Executive Director
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, she came to Vancouver in 2016 and worked until 2021 for Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington as director of the organization’s O.K. Clubhouse. More recently, she was program director and then director of operations for Family of Friends Mentoring, a youth social services program in Gresham, Oregon.
Before coming to the Northwest, Jennifer spent much of her working life in Michigan, where she held leadership positions with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holland and co-managed the start-up of Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids. She was an academic and behavior interventionist with Holland Public Schools and also spent nine years as director of middle school ministries at Maple Avenue Ministries, a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic church in Holland, Mich.
Columbia Future Forge lines up with her vision of ”preparing young folks so they have the choice of college, career, trades or the military,” she said. “They all have dreams, so how do we give them the skills and tools to accomplish those dreams or whatever they envision for themselves? Really, what’s in my wheelhouse is developing relationships with neighbors and the community for shared resources … so all young adults have the opportunity to be life-ready and job ready.”
Matt Overton, Founder
Matt was born in Virginia and moved to California as a young child. He is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Princeton Theological Seminary. Matt has lived in Clark County for fourteen years. For his day job he is the Minister of Youth and Families at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, WA. He also started a small landscaping company in Clark County, Mowtown Teen Lawn Care. As a teen and young adult, Matt’s first jobs included being a paper boy, custodian, sales clerk, track coach, tennis instructor, and warehouse employee.
We have a great group of mentors and life skills trainers from a variety of backgrounds.
Here are some examples of the experiences that they have:
