Ms. Arlyne has been making miracles with Milagro Center since ’08! For the past 12 years now, she has been a dedicated Milagro Center Mentor – mentoring three different children over the past dozen years and is also an active volunteer as well. Ms. Arlyne is certainly in it for the long haul! She has been with her current Mentee, DJ, since kindergarten. He is now in 5th grade. DJ has always struggled with reading and comprehension but with the help of Ms. Arlyne, who is a retired teacher and reading specialist, he has overcome major hurdles and has fallen in love with reading. “I’ve always been impressed with how much the children gain from Milagro Center, not just academically, but socially,” says Ms. Arlyne. “They become kinder and more aware of each other’s feelings.”

Milagro Center’s onsite mentoring program – “Mentoring Miracles” – has immediate and long-lasting positive impacts on our children and teens. Through grant support from United Way of Palm Beach County, Town of Palm Beach United Way, and other funding organizations and individuals, Milagro Center is able to match adult volunteers with each individual student in our S.T.A.R.S. (K-5th grade) and Junior Teen Leadership (middle school) Programs connecting our youth with positive role models while fostering long-term, nurturing, supportive, intergenerational relationships that are essential to building a child’s self-esteem. All of our Mentors make a minimum one-year commitment, undergo extensive background screenings, and participate in vigorous orientation and ongoing trainings to ensure the highest level of performance. It is a true testament to Milagro Center’s goal of ensuring each child’s success in school and in life that more than 65% of our current 62 mentors have exceeded their 1-year requirement and, like Ms. Arlyne, many have been mentoring at Milagro Center upwards of 5 – even 10 years!