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Meet New Team Member: Keyla

Keyla Araujo, Godfrey-Lee ECC Site Coordinator

We are thrilled to welcome the newest member to the Affinity family, Keyla Araujo! Keyla recently accepted the position as Site Coordinator at Affinity’s newest school partner, Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center (ECC). She brings a broad experience of community engagement and volunteer coordination.

Keyla is bilingual in Spanish/English, has experience coordinating programs and volunteers through her church’s Family Leadership Initiative and other programs. She’s an active community member who has been connected at Godfrey-Lee ECC for some time. In her spare time, she likes to work on her garden, get involved in her church, and spend time with her husband and four children.

Please join us in welcoming Keyla and celebrating the opening of our 4th site by attending our upcoming Ribbon Cutting Ceremony!

Date: Wednesday, August 14
Time: 3:30pm
Location: Godfrey-Lee ECC (961 Joosten St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509)

boldSOCKS’ Story

By Marjory Clay

Ryan + Joel

Ryan Roff is a passionate, mission-oriented Affinity mentor and partner. For the past five years, Ryan has mentored a Burton Elementary student named Joel, building a lasting bond. Ryan is originally from Minneapolis, moving to Michigan to attend Calvin College many years ago. It is there that he met his wife, Brooke, whom he now has two young children with and settled into Grand Rapids.

Ryan is highly passionate about mentoring, which has led him to not only mentor, but partner his company, boldSOCKS, with Affinity as well. “I saw a need for mentoring,” said Ryan, “I valued mentors over the years in my own life and felt a desire to pass it on. I wanted to invest into someone else. Knowing there is a waitlist for students to be matched with mentors is heartbreaking.” Each week Ryan and Joel play games together like “traffic jam” and jenga, or sometimes they work on homework or draw.


Partnership with Affinity

Ryan is the CEO and Co-Owner of a Grand Rapids based company, boldSOCKS, which currently has 8 employees who mentor weekly at Affinity. Through company give-back programs and organizational culture, their team believes that, “Together, we are a community of bold difference makers that value more than just fun socks.”

Ryan firmly believes that, “for organizations to be sustainable they need the support of businesses. Individuals have the opportunity to help, but it’s the support of the businesses that are the lifeline.”

“It was just me [mentoring] at the beginning, but we were looking for year end opportunities. No one had a response, it was eye-opening. We needed to figure out ways for employees to get involved with important causes.” Ryan began recruiting employees to mentor too. Eventually it evolved from a handful to almost the entire team.

BoldSOCKS’ staff usually carpool together to mentor, making it a type of team-building activity. “Five of us go together – we like to come in like a wrecking ball and serve at the same time.” In addition to mentoring, boldSOCKS also supports Affinity’s Annual Benefit Dinner to help ensure more students are matched with a caring mentor.

  • Mateo + Eric
  • boldSOCKS team
  • Klarisa + Autumn

If you’re interested in learning more about our partnerships, click here!
Or become a mentor, click here!

New Diversity + Inclusion Workshop for Mentors

By Rachel Lopez

Affinity Launches “Learning and Growing Together Series”
A discussion on race, culture, and inclusion in the mentoring relationship.

The goal of this workshop is for mentors to grow in their cultural intelligence and ability to use their expanded understanding to navigate cultural, experiential, racial, and other differences with their mentees successfully.

This will be an engaging and interactive session that deals with topics such as: cultural intelligence, cross-cultural communication, implicit bias, and healing racism.



Our goal is that attendees will walk away with:

  • increased cultural intelligence
  • elevated morale and energy
  • better communication and problem solving strategies
  • empowered to be even more effective mentors

All current mentors are encouraged to attend one of the three following training dates [a meal will be provided] :

  • Wednesday, August 7th [5:30pm-8:30pm] at the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan 
  • Saturday, November 9th [9am-1pm] at Mars Hill Bible Church 
  • Saturday, February 8th [9am-1pm] at Mars Hill Bible Church 

    • REGISTER NOW [Mentors Only]


    About the Speaker
    This workshop will be led by Julian Newman, Founder/CEO of Culture Creative, who consults across the nation with organizations on the integration of cultural awareness. He is recognized as a creative and inspirational speaker/leader/consultant in the areas of organizational diversity and cultural agility initiatives. Julian holds a CQ Certificate through the Cultural Intelligence Center, is a certified facilitator for the Woodrick Center for Equity and Inclusion, a member of the Urban Core Collective Transformational Leaders Program, and was named to the Great Lakes Multi-Ethnic Regional Team to facilitate racial reconciliation and diversity training in Michigan faith communities.

    About the Series

    This series is part of Affinity Mentoring’s larger mission to be a more culturally responsive organization. Funds to provide this training were provided by Herman Miller Cares and Steelcase Foundation grants. 

100 Days, 100 Mentors

Each year we have over 100 students on our waiting list, asking for mentors. With seed money from the Steelcase Foundation we are expanding to a 4th site this fall [Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center] to help meet that need.

But we need your help.

In the next 100 days, our goals are to recruit:

  • 100 new mentors
  • 100 match sponsors [to donate $10/month]

Will you join us?

Become a Mentor Match Sponsor 

Make a small, monthly contribution to Affinity. Your gift will not only help students academically, but it’ll also give them the social and emotional support they need to work towards a positive future.

Become a Mentor.

Sign up today to mentor one student for one hour week starting this fall and ask a friend to mentor too!

Steelcase Awards Affinity $75K Expansion Grant

April 16, 2019

Affinity Mentoring is pleased to announce it has received a $75,000 multiyear ($25,000 per year for 3 years) capacity building grant from the Steelcase Foundation. These funds will support current mentoring relationships and serve as seed money to open a 4th site at Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center (ECC) in Fall 2019.

“Schools, teachers, parents, and students from all over our community have been asking for Affinity Mentoring to be available in other schools,” says Laura Ward, Executive Director of Affinity Mentoring. “We’ve been working hard to build the capacity needed to expand the program. We’re thrilled to be able to add another site where students can receive additional academic, social emotional support and encouragement to reach their full potential.”

Since 2001 the mentoring program has matched over 1,500 students. However, there is a need for more. Affinity is building a multiyear expansion plan to serve more schools, like the 7 schools on the waiting list.

Julie Ridenour, President of the Steelcase Foundation says, “The Steelcase Foundation is honored to support Affinity Mentoring in its measured response to its program expansion. The growing number of requests from families for the mentoring services of Affinity is evidence of the quality of the work done by Affinity’s leadership and volunteers in three of the highest needs Kent County schools. The Steelcase Foundation is appreciative of Affinity’s willingness to base its work on best available research, rigorous analysis, and growing dedication to improving student literacy achievement.”

Kevin Polston, Superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools says, “Godfrey-Lee Public Schools believes in the impact mentoring can have on a child’s education and their overall wellbeing. One of our core values is community, the belief that it takes a village to raise a child. We are honored to begin a partnership with Affinity Mentoring to provide mentoring services at the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center to bring out the brilliance in each child.”

In the upcoming year, Affinity will match up to 40 students at the ECC. The team is in the process of developing a robust fund development plan that includes grants, individual donations, corporate sponsorships, special events, and in-kind donations to ensure sustainability.

Become a mentor, apply at: https://affinitymentoring.org/mentors/.

Sponsor a Mentor Match, donate at: https://affinitymentoring.org/sponsor/