Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization, and David & Margaret Youth and Family Services in La Verne is no exception. During 2012, 110 volunteers and mentors donated 3,400 hours of their energy, time and expertise to the agency, which is best known for its residential foster care program for girls ages 11-18.

Many of these girls have not had a stable, caring adult presence in their lives, and that is where mentors come in. D&M’s Mentoring Program is designed to match qualified, trained and vetted mentors with youth in need, who are at risk and may have experienced neglect, abuse or homelessness.

Each January is National Mentors Month, which recognizes and celebrates the contributions of mentors.

“Everything these young adults have to do in order to accomplish just daily progress is so different and more difficult from that which children in ‘normal’ homes with a family to help them are able to accomplish,” says Janisse Wilkins, who has been mentoring for just over a year. “Moving from one foster home to another can create huge obstacles in these children’s education, and each day that is lost is a day they will not get back.

“Once they begin the downward spiral of losing time in education, emotional development and the ability to trust or bond with adults and others, the spiral just doesn’t stop. If we can reach out and offer our hand to help them up, I believe we can make a difference in a cycle that without our help, is leading them to nowhere, without the necessary skills required to help them survive and lead a positive, productive life.”

Wilkins, who has no children of her own, relies on advice from friends and family when dealing with her teenage mentee.

“I call my mother and sister and ask them, ‘How do I respond in this instance?’ ” she says with a chuckle. “ ‘How do I deal with this? Am I being too hard on her, or too lenient? How do I handle this without alienating her?’ ” Although the time requirement for the mentors in the program is eight hours per month, Wilkins often carves out as much as five times that much from her life, which includes a demanding job covering most of South ern California as strategic account representative for Barnes Distribution, a business of MSC Industrial Supply.

“There is a great need for mentors who will give time to the children who are being raised in group foster care homes,” she says. “This need is so great, yet so unpublicized, and I was astonished to find there was a home in my community where my involvement might truly make a difference in someone’s life. It takes a village to raise these kids, and we need more villagers.”

David & Margaret Youth and Family Services serves more than 1,000 clients annually through a comprehensive range of services, including a residentialbased program for adolescent girls, shelter care for adolescent girls and boys, a foster family agency, adoption assistance, mental health services, treatment for learning disabilities, a transitional living program, school- and communitybased education and mentoring programs. Additionally, it has a chemical program that is certified by the state of California for residents who are recovering from substance abuse.

The Joan Macy School, a specialized nonpublic on-grounds school, opened in 1989 and serves agency residents, as well as students referred from surrounding school districts.

For more information on mentoring and volunteering at David & Margaret, contact Cece Ross at 909- 596-5921 ext. 3311 or at ConceptionR@Davidand Margaret.org.