Mentors Help Children Of Prisoners

Mentor Helps Kids At-Risk

Though Betty Irving lost all in the storm, she still finds time to mentor. Irving is a volunteer in our Mentoring Children of Promise program, which reaches out to youngsters with incarcerated parents. These children are innocent, but they face tough challenges. Without intervention, they have a 70 percent chance of ending up behind bars. Volunteers of America is working to change this tragedy.

The program’s heroes are mentors such as Irving, a New Orleans retired math teacher, grandmother and group home staffer. She mentors because she has compassion for young people and wants to help break the vicious cycle of imprisonment that draws in so many. “Listening to kids gives them the opportunity to express themselves and breaks the barriers they have with adults,” Irving says.

She mentors 17-year-old Wendell Millro, who attends John McDonogh High School and is being raised by his grandmother. Both he and Irving attend Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Wendell, who has five brothers and a sister, is a typical local teen who enjoys football and riding his bike and aspires to be a computer engineer. Irving helps him see that he has a great future ahead.

Irving’s heroism is even more apparent in that she hasn’t let her own crisis keep her from mentoring. She and her husband lost their New Orleans East home and belongings in the hurricane and, until recently, were living with relatives. Irving says she feels blessed to be alive and able to reach out to children, whose losses during the disaster were so great.

Actually, New Orleans is blessed to have such caring citizens as Irving among its many saints.