Professional Mentor "Friend" Friends - Utah

Are you ready to turn your passion for youth advocacy into a meaningful career? Friends of the Children – Utah is seeking a full-time Professional Mentor, we call a "Friend," to walk alongside eight male youth—showing up consistently, building trust, and creating a sense of belonging through a long‑term, relationship‑centered role. You’ll champion each child’s strengths, celebrate their wins, and help them navigate significant challenges at school, at home, and in the community.

This innovative, evidence‑based approach moves mentorship beyond the volunteer realm and is backed by more than 32 years of data. Our model creates lifelong positive change for youth.

We are looking for a compassionate, committed professional with experience in education, youth services, or social work, and the drive to make a measurable, lasting difference. As a Professional Mentor, you will help youth facing life’s greatest obstacles discover their limitless potential, build internal resiliency, and disrupt harmful cycles. Your impact will extend beyond the child, empowering caregivers and strengthening the entire family unit through trauma‑informed, culturally responsive partnerships.

Join us and help change what’s possible—one relationship at a time.

Friends of the Children is a nonprofit that is impacting generational change by empowering youth through relationships with professional mentors. We do this by providing children facing the most obstacles with a long‑term, salaried, professional mentor, who we call a "Friend," from kindergarten through high school graduation, 12 ½ years – no matter what. We are currently seeking an extraordinary bilingual Spanish speaking professional to embark on a new career journey as a Friend at our Utah Chapter.

At Friends of the Children, we put children first and use our values to change the way the world treats and views youth facing great barriers. As a Friend you will nurture long‑term relationships from a foundation of love, acceptance, and culturally informed practice. Do you want to help eight of our youth discover their limitless potential, by fostering their internal resiliency?

Are you ready to help build relationships within the communities of our youth and families to strengthen social networks and provide bridges to new opportunities? If so, the impactful role of a Friend might be for you.

A Friend works intensively with eight (8) male children as a positive adult role model to develop a caring, trusting and sustained relationship with each child. For each child, a Friend will set positive expectations; nurture and promote their strengths, talents and abilities; help assure physical and emotional well‑being; teach life and academic skills; provide enrichment activities; and model responsible behavior.

A Friend will fully document activities and participate in an ongoing evaluation process. Friends will work primarily one‑on‑one with their children. A Friend must also know, understand, honor and support the organization’s mission, vision, values, principles and policies, and be able to clearly articulate the organization’s function.

• Develop and sustain a long‑term, caring, protective, and loving relationship with each child.
• Spend time with children, one‑on‑one and at home, school, and in the community.
• In collaboration with youth and caregivers, set goals and develop plans to meet those goals to ensure the development of each child’s strengths, talents, abilities, and needs.
• Teach life skills and help develop a talent/skill/area of interest with each child along with healthy habits to contribute both to basic development and learning, and to contribute to building positive self‑esteem.
• Provide enrichment resources and activities that include opportunities for cultural awareness.
• Support child’s development of behavioral management skills, emotional regulation, and prosocial behavior.
• Model and promote good problem solving and decision‑making skills.
• Develop positive relationships with families, teachers, and others involved in each child’s life.
• Advocate to secure additional resources, opportunities, and services for…