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.
Despite working at Best
Buy and teaching Digital Me-
dia classes at Blanchet High
School, Morse still puts in
around 30 hours a week in the
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