Friends of the Children-Flathead Nation celebrates a year of serving the Flathead Indian Reservation with impacts to families and children.

Friends of the Children is a national non-profit organization that provides a 12-year commitment of professional mentorship to children, starting as young as 4-years-old. With one-on-one support, the mentors, who are called “friends,” focus on skill development, social engagement and educational achievement

“It's more than just mentoring the kids. I'm there with families and walking alongside them,” John Berard, one of the friends, said. “And I've always really enjoyed working with the community.”

The program includes a two-generation approach, which offers support to the child's caregivers. Each location of Friends of the Children is its own non-profit that builds relationships in the community and with the local schools to provide resources such as school supplies or transportation.

“We don't just focus on the child. We really focus on the needs of the families too,” Berard said. “By working with the kids, we have built these relationships with the parents and grandparents, to where we essentially become part of their family.”

All four mentors at Flathead Nation are assigned eight youths that they spend four hours with each week. Each mentor is Indigenous and brings cultural knowledge and lived experience of long-term relationships to the children and families they work with.

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