4 RAPS SHEET n MARCH 2023 PAST TENSE: Looking back at PSU’s early history Fostering mentoring— PSU and community partnerships As a child growing up in poverty, Duncan Campbell experienced a very difficult life and reached out for support beyond his parents as he worked to graduate from high school, complete a college degree, and become a CPA and a lawyer. After founding a successful firm fostering timber investment funds, he decided to focus his efforts on improving the situation of children facing the greatest adversities, who needed guidance to navigate their complicated lives and grow into caring and responsible young adults. Local systems and agencies that provided child services were largely functioning to handle crises, and rarely were able to provide long-term assistance so that children avoided dropping out of school, having early pregnancies, and experiencing trouble with the law. Instead, Campbell consulted with child development specialists, educators, social workers, and psychologists to conceive a highly innovative approach: to identify the children facing the greatest obstacles at an early age (kindergarten), to provide them with a paid, professional mentor (who would see them four hours a week), and to offer this support unconditionally (no matter what) until they graduated from high school (at least 12 years). In 1993, Campbell provided funding to establish Friends of the Children as a nonprofit program. The first Friends of the Children chapter, founded in North Portland, had three mentors, known as “Friends,” who provided long-term one-to-one mentoring to a total of 24 children. As local support grew, Campbell reached out to some Portland State faculty who provided advice and served on the board of directors of Friends of the Children. An initiative grew to identify and hire a faculty member who was an expert on mentoring and could work collaboratively with local programs to enhance services and outcomes. So with funding from local supporters, Portland State was able to create the Duncan & Cindy Campbell Endowed Professorship for Children, Youth and Families with an Emphasis on Mentoring. An expert on youth mentoring from the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago, Thomas Keller, was hired as the Campbell Professor, and began working in September 2006 at the PSU School of Social Work. Keller began serving on the board of directors for Friends of the Children and supported research initiatives to study and refine the program as new chapters opened. Keller was also able to establish the Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research at PSU and hold an annual Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring to help develop mentoring initiatives and provide continuing education. Currently Friends of the Children chapters have been established in more than 25 locations in the United States, ranging from Portland and Southwest Washington to Chicago, New York, Tampa Bay, Austin, and Los Angeles, as well as the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Left to right: Duncan Campbell, founder, Friends of the Children, with Tom Keller, Campbell Professor of Social Work, and Terri Sorensen, national chief executive officer, Friends of the Children.
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