encouraging children to stay in school, a US expert on the subject said.

"Mentoring works, but it cannot work without you,'' Dr. Susan Weinberger told corporate and volunteer representatives at a recent luncheon organised by YouthNet.

The local-based charity held the luncheon to promote corporate participation in school-based mentoring programmes on the Island.

Dr. Weinberger is executive director of Connecticut-based Norwalk Mentor Programme, an organisation which originally started school-based corporate participation in the US 13 years ago. The organisation now has 813 mentors and 48 corporations involved in the programme.

Based on the success of the Norwalk programme, other organisations have expanded the model nationwide.

Now YouthNet wants to expand its drive to get corporations to allow volunteer employees an hour a week off and help school children get ahead in life.

YouthNet has had a mentoring programme involving about 30 companies since 1996. However the logistics of administering has become more than YouthNet can bear if it wants to expand the programme, volunteer member David Lines Jr.

said.

The organisation wants to expand the programme by getting companies to keep track of the volunteers in the programme. YouthNet will organise the school children and team them up with volunteers under the joint relationship with individual companies.

The companies then agree to allow the volunteers one hour a week off to meet with the children at their various schools under supervision. The mentors will help the children in discussing their career paths, and other job-related topics.

Dr. Weinberger said in her experience the school-based mentoring programme has helped cut down on the tendency of neglected children to drop out of school.

"Mentoring is one of the most powerful tools to assist large numbers of children,'' she said. "It's a one on one relationship between caring adults and deserving youth.'' She said the reason mentors met their charges on school grounds was due to a monitoring and liability issue.

"Mentoring gives children that extra little push to succeed,'' she said.

Those wishing to volunteer can contact YouthNet at 293-3638.