The 4C Mentoring Program provides trained, committed mentors to youth, ages 13 to 17, involved in the King Country Juvenile Justice system. The youth we serve come from Seattle neighborhoods with the highest concentration of working poor: Central District, Rainier Valley, Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill, West Seattle, and Skyway. Their issues include substance abuse, emotional/ mental despair, crime, and poverty.
Some youth seem too entrenched to reach. But word has gotten around about the positive outcomes of mentoring this population, and the demand for mentors is growing. We currently have 55 youth, mostly boys (disproportionately African American), on the wait list for a mentor.
We match mentors by interests, compatibility, and gender. Some youth are more open when also matched with mentors who look more familiar, and we have a particular need for more African American male mentors.
The 4C Coalition formed in 1999 in response to the high number of youth that that “fall through the cracks,” become truant, or drop out. Often, family support and the much needed number of male support is lacking. The adults in charge may be overextended, disengaged, absent, or emotionally or mentally incapable of giving proper guidance.
The mission of our mentoring program is to provide youth a healthy and productive mentoring relationship, more opportunities for success, and resources for mentees and their families.
Research shows that mentoring is the most effective component of a program for reclaiming juveniles at risk of long-term incarceration, before it’s too late.
Mentors commit to one year. They receive research-based training along with regular scheduled support, as well as support on call. Many mentor/mentee relationships continue well beyond one year. Our mentors commonly say that mentoring is one of the most rewarding experiences they’ve ever had.

Description:
The 4C Coalition is a core partner in Seattle/King County Reclaiming Futures Project and the lead agency for the Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement . The 4C Coalition was formed in 1999 for the purpose of providing 1) mentors to youth, 2) church and community resources to the families of these youth and 3) a united voice to the community and government agencies to educate and effectively address youth issues. The President of the 4C Coalition is Rev. Steve Baber . The Coalition has sponsored annual mentoring Sundays within a dozen local churches and has participated in community festivals for the purpose of recruiting adults to mentor youth. We have participated in projects at Garfield High School investigating high drop out rates and poor performances. We are committed to expanding and provide mentoring, employment services as well as chemical dependency counseling and support groups, workshops, activities for project participants, parents, teachers, criminal justice professionals and all who have contact with our youth. The 4C Coalition is not a program to solve a problem, but a process to provide possibilities.

History:
We are in the beginning of a new paradigm, a new way of thinking. A place and time of cooperation as we strive to build our community. The 4C started with a campaign called Operation Uplift . The purpose of Operation Uplift was to create and design a recruitment campaign to increase and expand opportunities for mentoring. The campaign for Operation Uplift was born out of collaboration between Big Brothers and Big Sisters of King County when Rev Jimmie James was community liason , The Joy Initiative, out of King County Department of Juvenile Services Chaplaincy program and Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration Mentor Program. The programs came together to collaborate out of a common need, which was to increase mentors, especially African-American male mentors, to work with the devastating number of youth in need of support from a caring adult. After several meetings it was decided by Operation Uplift that to have an impact on the faith community, an atmosphere had to be created that would inform and inspire the congregations. On October 6, 1999 several pastors, church representatives, agencies, educational persons and mentor programs met at JRA Region IV to discuss how churches could devote more effort towards working together in mentoring our youth. It was discussed how churches, both large and small, should share resources to reach our youth and how mentor programs could offer training or technical assistance to the churches.
Operation Uplift and the Church Council of Greater Seattle then invited Reverend Eugene Rivers, co-founder of the Ten-Point Coalition in Boston, who was featured in NEWSWEEK Magazine and on CNN to Seattle. Reverend Rivers is a former gang member who went on to Harvard University. He wrote the Ten-Point plan for a church mobilization to combat black-on-black violence in addition to co-founding the internationally recognized Boston Ten-Point Coalition, a group of pastors that are successfully helping Boston's most troubled youth. On October 25, 1999, First African Methodist Episcopal Church hosted a pastors' luncheon to continue the discussion of church involvement with Seattle's most troubled youth. On the evening of October 25, Reverend Rivers gave a powerfully inspirational message on the importance of the need to mobilize to save our communities and our youth.
Tuesday, October 26, 1999, a roundtable meeting convened with Reverend Rivers, pastors from the Seattle Churches, agencies and mentor programs to continue the discussions and of partnership. Out of these discussions, light was shed upon the enormity and magnitude of the crisis in our community, that of disproportionality. On November 16, 1999, Reverend John Wyatt of Ebenezer African Methodist Zion Church hosted local clergy, agencies, church representatives and mentor programs to begin planning, developing missions, goals and strategies in identifying solutions. You are in the middle of a shift in the way our clergy, communities and agencies are working together. The objective of Operation Uplift is being met. If we are to find long-term solutions for the spiritual, social and educational needs of our children, it is clear that we must continue to develop strategies that draw on the unique strengths that exist in our churches. Out of Operation Uplift the 4 C's Coalition was birthed. 4 C Coalition is: Clergy, Community, and Children/Youth Coalition. A coalition of Pastors, and community members who are committed to their communities, their congregations and to youth.
The momentum continues to grow! There is a shift, a move, a change in the way we will work together, and everyone will feel the impact of this positive change as we build the community for our youth and families!On Wednesday, March 26th, Susan Taylor, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, 1981-2008, launched Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement an inititive of the National Cares Mentoring Movement .A call to action across the country to come together with community leaders and mentoring stakeholders in effort to rally prospective mentors for the futures of our youth.

Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement™ is a call to action for every capable and willing adult to rise to the challenge of creating a lasting positive impact on the lives of many at-risk youths. “The negative forces claiming our children are more powerful at this moment than our community’s and country’s effort to secure them,” states Susan Taylor. This movement is geared toward becoming part of the solution to encourage high achievement for young people who are in dire need of a positive role model.

Seattle Cares is one of the 22 launches across the US to recruit volunteer mentors to help young people achieve their full potential. Lead agency for this campaign is the 4C Coalition in partner with local affiliates that include Washington State Mentors, CASA The Links Inc., Seattle Urban League, DSHS, and King County. The 4C Coalition, lead agency for this campaign, in partnership with several local affiliates: United Way, King County Councilman Larry Gossett, Seattle Public Library , CASA, DSHS, M. L. King County Labor Unions, Seattle Urban League, Washington State Mentors, and The Links Inc. Community leaders supporting the effort include Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, Councilman Larry Gossett, Rev. Steve E. Baber, other clergy, and mentoring programs

Seattle Care Mentoring Movement™ promotes Six Steps to setting up a Local Cares Circle: 1) Form steering committees of devoted people in local communities. 2) Set up CIRCLE infrastructures. 3) Develop work plans. 4) Form partnerships with existing mentoring organizations. 5) Launch the initiative. 6) Host mentor recruitment rallies.

Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement is supported by the national partnership of YWCA, MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, Thomas Dortch, founder of 100 Black Men of America, Inc., Children’s Defense Fund, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Girl Scouts of the USA, United Negro College Fund, national Baptist Conventions, Legal Defense Fund, NAACP, Operation Hope, MAD DADS Inc., and National Institute for Literacy.
WE CALL YOU TO JOIN THE MOVEMENT !!! MENTOR A YOUTH !! WE NEED YOU !! WE ARE IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY A TIME FOR ALL OF US TO TAKE A STAND FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND YOUTH !

Contact person: Hazel Cameron, Executive Director, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: 206:522-4337

Address:

11800 Renton Ave.South Seattle, WA 98178 This location is handicap accessible (See a map)

Web Site: http://the4ccoalition.org

Directions:

Directions to Skyway United Methodist Church Office of 4 C's Coalition 11800 Renton Avenue South Seattle, Washington 98178 From Renton: From Rainier Avenue, turn north (uphill) onto Renton Avenue South. There is a McDonald's on the corner and the Renton Airfield is across the. . . (more)

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