About Us

The Clay County PALS has been active within Clay County since 1976, when Rev. Wayne Clark of Grace United Methodist Church helped establish the Big Brother-Big Sister Program in Spencer. In 1986, the program changed its name to Clay County PALS in order to operate independently from the national mentorship organization due to franchise costs associated with running the program.

Since that time, the program has run exclusively on volunteer manpower. Our largest source of funding is provided by the Spencer United Way. Additional funds are raised from individual donors and organizations, which wish to positively impact the children of Clay County Iowa.

Clay County PALS is a grassroots, volunteer mentorship program designed to foster friendships between adult mentors and school-aged children through positive role modeling.

Numerous statistics show that mentoring relationships can have a dynamic impact upon a child’s life, including:

• Better school performance
• Improved self esteem
• Healthier emotional well-being
• Increased communication and life skills

In PALS, we work to match an adult volunteer mentor with a same-sex, school-aged child between the ages of six and 16. The program caters to children from single-parent homes.

A thorough application process is in place for both student and adult. Young PAL referrals are received from schools, social services, churches or individuals. Parents or legal guardians must complete an application for the child.

Adult volunteers must also complete an application, provide references, and pass a screening through the Iowa Department of Human Services for authorization for release of child abuse information.

The PALS are matched by considering interests, personality and ages of the adult and child. All parties involved, including the PALS Board of Directors, must approve the proposed match before finalization.

PALS friendships typically flourish through encouragement and support, while spending time together monthly. The list of activities to do together as PALS is limited only to one’s imagination. A variety of low-cost, trust-building and friendship-growing activities are encouraged. The PALS Board of Directors often promotes and sponsors such events.

Mentoring by a caring adult over a prolonged period of time has been shown in countless academic studies to be effective in combating a variety of risk factors. A young person involved in a quality mentoring relationship sees positive outcomes in the areas of school, mental health, problem behavior and overall health.

Mentoring also provides an opportunity for adult men and women to be a positive adult role model while making a life-time impact in a child’s life. Mentoring matters!