Executive Order Number Seventy-Five Establishing the Governor’s Mentoring Initiative
WHEREAS, Delaware’s youth can benefit from positive adult relationships in their lives to enhance their academic and personal growth; and
WHEREAS, mentoring is a proven and effective means of supporting the positive development of youth; and
WHEREAS, young people who are mentored perform better academically, show increased self-esteem and positive decision making, report better relationships with friends, parents, teachers, and their communities; and
WHEREAS, in a recent survey of mentoring relationships, youth with mentors were shown to be: 46 percent less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27 percent less likely to begin using alcohol, 52 percent less likely to skip school, 37 percent less likely to skip a class, more confident of their performance in schoolwork, one-third less likely to hit someone, and better able to get along with their families; and
WHEREAS, a recent survey of Delaware schools demonstrated that 17,000 youth could benefit from a mentoring relationship; and
WHEREAS, Delaware’s employees can positively impact the State of Delaware by mentoring a child each week; and
WHEREAS, on January 10, 2002, I recognized the Delaware Mentoring Council (the “Council”) and formally established the Council as the group to coordinate statewide mentoring efforts for Delaware’s youth; and
WHEREAS, the Council has recommended that the State of Delaware adopt an initiative to encourage State employees to mentor school aged youth,
NOW THEREFORE, I, RUTH ANN MINNER, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of Delaware, hereby declare and order as follows:
1. The Governor’s Mentoring Initiative is established. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage State employees to volunteer as mentors to school-aged youth in their communities, and to facilitate such service through use of flexible employee schedules.
2. All State agencies are encouraged to permit their employees, wherever operationally feasible, to use flexible schedules to participate in such mentoring programs as are registered with the Council, including without limitation Big Brothers/Big Sisters, HOSTS and Creative Mentoring.
3. All agencies shall ensure that flexible schedules do not increase the State’s obligations to make overtime pay. To the extent practicable, agencies shall ensure that flexed leave time can be combined with an employee’s lunch hour, or can be used at the beginning or end of an employee’s work day, in order to maximize the employee’s time spent mentoring. Any volunteer time in excess of the flexed schedule must be performed during the employee’s personal time.
4. In all cases, the eligibility for an employee to utilize flexible schedules for mentoring shall be subject to written approval by the employee’s supervisor or agency head. Employees whose work requirements or work history, in the discretion of the agency head, make them unsuitable for flexible scheduling shall not be eligible to participate.
5. Any cost associated with mentoring, including transportation, fingerprinting or background checks, shall be paid by the individual volunteer or by the organization for which the individual is volunteering.
6. The Delaware Mentoring Council shall be responsible for overseeing and implementing the Governor’s Mentoring Initiative. The Human Resources Management Section of the Office of Management and Budget shall cooperate with the Council in developing and implementing procedures to fairly enable as many employees as possible to participate in the initiative. With the assistance of the Office of Management and Budget, the Council shall develop forms for interested employees to participate in the initiative, and develop outreach efforts to encourage youth mentoring by State employees. The Council shall also develop a list of registered mentoring organizations eligible for participation in the Initiative. Information on the Governor’s Mentoring Initiative, as developed and approved by the Council, shall be included on the State’s web-site.
APPROVED: September 30, 2005
