Hoboken, NJ – Tuesday, September 12, 2017, TRUE Mentors kicked off the school year with Executive Director, Katie Eades, absorbing the role of Program Director as well. “Her impact on the organization, from the top down has been instrumental in our efforts to reach more families and increase our impact on the community. When the organization had the chance to bring her on in dual roles, we seized the opportunity and could not be more excited about the work she has accomplished in such a short time frame,” said Board President, Liam O’Sullivan.
No stranger to working with kids, Ms. Eades is a 7 year veteran of the Chicago Department of Education where she taught high school history on the South-Side. She also spends her Saturday mornings coaching children’s fitness classes at CrossFit Hoboken. “I am excited to formally expand my role in shaping programming and directly working with our families and students on a weekly basis” said Eades.
Since being recruited by TRUE Mentors in February 2016 as Executive Director, Ms. Eades focused on volunteer recruitment, raising brand awareness in order to recruit more mentors, and spearheading fundraising efforts. Ms. Eades, as a former small business owner and educator, has brought an expertise in developing policies, processes, and organizational efficiencies that has enabled TRUE Mentors to start their 2017-2018 programs with the highest enrollment to date, reaching over 70 unique child participants in their first week.
Simultaneously holding both positions, Ms. Eades is laser focused on eliminating their mentee wait-list, already helping facilitate 14 matches and training 13 new mentors, and is thinking out of the box in order to provide enriching positive experiences for the children. “The shortage of men in mentoring is a national problem which is why I will connect our mentee wait-list with our group mentoring opportunities until we can match each mentee. All of our mentee applicants will experience mentoring, whether in a group setting such as the Enrichment Club Program or in our Teen Internship Program, which provides both one-to-one and weekly group mentoring.”
Though Ms. Eades knows she is ready to launch TM to the next level, she knows without volunteer and community bandwidth it could not happen. “I couldn’t do it without support from the community and the amazing volunteers and board. We are incredibly efficient with our finances and make every donation go far as it can; this organization does not work without volunteers from the community who are mentoring and organizing trips and programs for the children” Ms. Eades states. She continued “my goal is to provide more support for our volunteers through updated and expanded training opportunities and more efficient policies and process.”
Anyone interested in volunteering can visit the website www.truementors.org/volunteer