When Eddie Borokovich was younger, his mother Alla helped him with his homework and school projects and answered all his questions about life.
Now that he’s 12, “Mom is no longer the authority,” Alla Borokovich said. “It’s just a way of life. It’s the age.”
Nonetheless, Borokovich thought her son could still use a little help in school, and in growing up. So she enlisted the help of a mentor.
Now once a week Eddie meets with Rex Mandel, a 39-year-old auditor and confirmed baseball fanatic, at Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Parent’s Place in San Francisco. Sometimes the two troubleshoot homework difficulties. Sometimes they compare baseball statistics. Sometimes they just talk.
“He sort of feels like a brother, like a friend,” Eddie, a seventh-grade student at San Francisco’s Presidio Middle School, said of Mandel. “After one of our tutoring sessions I got the highest score in my class on an assignment.
“He also taught me how the World Series is scheduled.”
Eddie and Mandel are one of a half-dozen mentor matches made by Parents Place.
Just two months old, the mentor program is modeled after Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. However, unlike Big Brothers, which requires volunteers to make a three- to six-hour time commitment per week for one year, the Parents Place mentoring program asks volunteers to set aside one to two hours a week over a six-month period.
According to Laurel Kloomok, director of Parents Place, the focus of the program is tutoring, but “we hope the interest [in a relationship] will go beyond that.
“The reality is, in most families both parents are working. They’re not as available to do homework,” Kloomok said.
“The extended family isn’t around. There are emigre families or families where the parents’ education just isn’t as sophisticated as the child’s — especially in science and computers. The parents can’t help even if they want to.”
The program is open to students ages 8 to 18. Referrals come from parents, therapists, teachers, emigre services and Dream House, JFCS’ transitional housing for women and children.
Mentors include retired math teachers and attorneys.
Following a screening process, which includes fingerprinting, mentors participate in ongoing training sessions at Parents Place, discussing such topics as how to make lessons exciting, how to be a good listener and how to build trust.
“We’re looking for skills beyond academics — interest in arts or sports, plus a sense of humor and patience,” said Dana Katz, coordinator of youth programs for Parents Place.
For Mandel, the mentoring program is an opportunity to share knowledge and life skills with a child: He has none of his own.
“I’ve coached kids’ baseball and I wanted to work with children again. They’re so guileless,” Mandel said. “Kids need positive reinforcement. And it’s nice to see when they progress.
“Truth is, I feel like such a kid myself. It’s probably the reason I relate well to children.”
Mandel is realistic, though, cautioning that “it takes a long time to work out a real relationship. We’re just in the beginning phases.”
Nonetheless, both Eddie and Alla Borokovich are thrilled with the match.
“Eddie was skeptical at first. `Humor me,’ I said. He met Rex and it was love at first sight,” Borokovich said.
Meanwhile, Katz is trying to find matches for the six other trained mentors. And she’s looking for more kids and mentors for the future.
“In the beginning I wondered if there was really a need for this. The answer is: most definitely,” Katz said.
“Just this morning I got a call from someone who saw our flier in a doctor’s office. She said, `My daughter needs tutoring.'”
Though the program is aimed at the Jewish community, “it’s not just for Jewish kids,” Katz added. “It’s really for whoever needs it.”