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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2019)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 1, 2019 KeizerCommunity KEIZERTIMES.COM Pastor fi nds brotherhood in mentoring By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes Tim Davis has been the community pastor at Church on the Hill in Keizer for 12 years now. But back in 2015, Davis felt the need to expand his ministry. After meeting weekly with two of his friends, Davis came to the conclusion that there was a need in the community that wasn’t being fi lled. “We were seeing nonprof- its with wonderful causes, but the stories that were being portrayed almost always start- ed with a person who came from a fatherless home or ex- perienced absence and abuse from their father,” Davis said. This gave Davis the moti- vation to do what he could to help, which is why he start- ed Brothers of Valor — also known as Valor Mentoring. Valor Mentoring is a non- profi t organization that strives to contest the impact of fa- therless by providing mentor- ship to young men through one-on-one relationships, community projects and mu- sic media. While mentoring is open to boys and men of all ages, more than 80 percent of peo- ple that are being currently being mentored by Brothers of Valor are either junior high or high school students in the Salem-Keizer area. “If we could get a young man to be a better future em- ployee, a better college stu- dent, a better husband and father, then it will impact the community in a positive way,” Davis said. One aspect of Davis’s pas- sion for mentoring young men came from fi rst-hand experience. Davis’s parents divorced when he was just two years old, and since his mother re- married several times, Davis moved all-around the country Submitted Tim Davis (left) and David Morse (right) from Brothers of Valor address the crowd during the Xperience Music Festival at Mc- Nary High School in October. as a youngster. With a lack of a consistent male presence in his life, Davis credits the mentors he had in high school for helping him become the man he is today. “I had very inconsistent role-models in my life. But I was fortunate to have men in- vest in my life and see some- thing redeemable in me and then coach me up,” Davis said. “I am where I am because of mentoring.” Over the last four years, Davis has been able to de- velop partnerships with Sa- lem-Keizer schools and mul- tiple foster care organizations as well as juvenile systems. Davis’s partnership with SK schools has been crucial to growing his program, due to the fact that the majori- ty of the mentees that come through Valor Mentoring are referred by a teacher, counsel- or or coach. “Schools are really for us,” Davis said. “Because they don’t have the funding or bandwidth to do the things we’re doing.” “Teachers and counselors know the kids that need the most help.” In order to match young men up with a proper mentor, Davis has them fi le paperwork that share their hobbies and interests. All of the mentors at Valor Mentoring serve as volun- teers, which allows them to connect more with the kids that they work with accord- ing to Davis. “When kids know that their mentor isn’t being paid to be here, I think that helps break down those walls a little quicker,” Davis said. “It can create a more trust- ing relationship between a mentee and a mentor.” Currently, Valor Mentoring has more than 80 mentor- ing relationships and Davis is hoping to double that total by the end of 2019 — mentors are recruited from churches and other nonprofi t organi- zations. One of those volunteer mentors is David Morse. Morse has been with Val- or Mentoring for two years where he serves the majority of the time with the music program as the Valor Studios Director. “I believe in the cause so much,” Morse said. “I love be- ing able to walk alongside kids in this avenue.” Davis believes that one of the things that separates Valor Mentoring from other orga- nizations is how they support their volunteer mentors. “There have been multiple mentoring organizations that have come and gone in this area and the main two reasons was due to lack of training and follow-up and encourage- ment,” Davis said. “So that’s where we spend a lot of time and energy. We follow up with every one of our mentors on a monthly basis.” Davis is also in the process of developing a phone app that has training and encour- agement videos for mentors. While Davis takes a lot of pride in what his organization offers in one-on-one mento- ring and mentoring through service projects, he also ac- knowledged that the most popular aspect of Valor Men- toring is their music program. With a recording studio at Salem First Presbyteri- an Church, Valor Mentoring opens the door into the world of music on multiple different platforms for interested kids. The studio allows kids to write and record their own music, but also gives them the opportunity to enter into a music engineering program to learn from professionals in the industry — all free of charge. “When you’re hearing your voice recorded for the fi rst time and go through that process, it brings up all kinds of creativity,” Davis said. Morse has an astonishing passion for helping kids dis- cover that creativity. 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