“Research has demonstrated that adolescents with at least one high-quality supportive relationship with an adult were twice as likely as other youth to be economically self-sufficient, have healthy family and social relationships, and be productively involved in their communities.”

—Finding Out What Matters to Youth: Testing Key Links in a Community Action Framework for Youth Development, Gambone, Connell, Klem, Sipe, & Bridges, 2002, http://www.ydsi.org/ydsi/pdf/whatmatters.pdf

“Americans who failed to complete high school, to get married, and to reach age 20 before having their first child – were nearly 10 TIMES MORE LIKELY to LIVE in POVERTY as those who did these three things.”

—Kids Count report, Annie E. Casey Foundation’s http://www.aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/PublicationsSeries/KCDatabookProds.aspx

“The term poverty is usually used to simply refer to a lack of money, but living in a state of financial instability is both physically and emotionally damaging. While a child who grows up in a middle class suburb is taught that he or she can go to college, marry, have a rewarding career, and make a meaningful contribution to the world at large, a child born into poverty must struggle to simply make it to adulthood. The long term effects of poverty are why this is a social issue that deserves public attention.”

—What are the Long-Term Effects of Poverty Wisegeek.com, http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-the-long-term-effects-of-poverty.htm#slideshow

“Fatherless families are America’s single largest source of poverty…Poverty, it goes without saying, is associated with poorer academic outcomes, which in turn, are associated with poorer job prospects…Non-marriage has consequences. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Kids Count” once reported that Americans who failed to complete high school, to get married and to reach age 20 before having their first child were nearly 10 times as likely to live in poverty as those who did these three things.”

—William Raspberry (Washington Post 8/2005) (Kids Count, Annie E. Casey Foundation), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/31/AR2005073101075.html, http://www.aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/PublicationsSeries/KCDatabookProds.aspx

“…mentoring programs for disadvantaged children and adolescents have received serious attention as a promising approach to enriching children’s lives, addressing their need for positive adult contact, and providing one-on-one support and advocacy for those who need it. Mentoring is also recognized as an excellent way to use volunteers to address the problems created by poverty (Freedman, 1992).”

—Mentoring–A Proven Delinquency Prevention Strategy, Jean Baldwin Grossman and Eileen M. Garry http://www.nws.k12.mn.us/sites/2d9a1349-cfa4-4e52-af9f-ecf4c7ef04e9/uploads/Benefits_of_Mentoring.pdf