Northside Mentoring Program

First Free Church, Northside Community Church, and the greater La Crosse community have launched a new pilot partnership with Northside Elementary to provide mentors for students who need additional academic and social support and guidance.

Why do we think developing relationships between a child and an adult is a way to improve the educational life of a child?

Research shows that mentored youth do significantly better than non-mentored youth on a number of important outcomes, including fewer depressive symptoms, greater acceptance by their peers, more positive beliefs about their ability to succeed in school, and better grades in school (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2007).

“Mentoring helps young people, especially at-risk youth, succeed in school, work, and life. A strong research base supports the efficacy of quality mentoring, including a recent meta-analysis of more than 73 independent mentoring programs that found positive outcomes across social, emotional, behavioral, and academic areas of youth development.” from (The Mentoring Effect:Young People’s Perspectives on the Outcomes and Availability of Mentoring) Through the generosity of volunteers and donors, our partners invest time and resources in the education of youth to help them become healthy and productive adults.

This program has been adapted from the Gundersen Global Partners – At Home Mentoring Program.

Northside Elementary School is located on the north side of La Crosse. We are housed in a beautiful new building and are part of the School District of La Crosse. We have approximately 540 students on our campus! Our school is located on nearly five acres of land on the north end of La Crosse within an urban neighborhood.

Fun Fact! We have two schools located within our building:

• Northside Elementary is a conventionally organized school that employs innovative research-based practices and serves students from preschool through fifth grade.
• Coulee Montessori Charter School is a Montessori school with multi-age classrooms from preschool through fifth grade. Coulee Montessori uses Montessori materials, curriculum, and teaching approaches in all its classrooms.

Despite our large size, we cultivate a family atmosphere in both of our schools with an emphasis on developing the whole child and partnering with families and our community to serve our students.