Part One: Known
No One Gets There Alone
The Relationships Are the Key
At Elevate, we have spent more than four decades building our work around a simple idea:
Young people change in the context of relationships.
But what makes a relationship developmental? What separates an adult who is simply present from one who helps a young person grow?
Search Institute has spent decades studying that question. Its Developmental Relationships Framework identifies five elements of relationships that help young people discover who they are, develop the ability to shape their own lives, and learn to contribute to the world around them:
Express Care. Challenge Growth. Provide Support. Share Power. Expand Possibilities.
Those five elements sound remarkably familiar to us.
Because every day across the Elevate network, Teacher-Mentors are putting them into practice.
Over this five-part series, we'll explore what each looks like, and why relationships aren't simply part of the Elevate model.
Relationships are the model.
PART ONE: KNOWN
Express Care: Show me that I matter.
“My Teacher-Mentor is a trusted adult I can count on to provide love, comfort and good advice; someone who understands me and listens without judgment.”
— Elevate Student
There is a significant difference between being around young people and truly knowing them.
Young people know the difference, too.
They know which adults remember the conversation from last week. Who notices when they walk into the room differently. Who asks the second question. Who celebrates their wins. Who notices their absence.
And, perhaps most importantly, who keeps showing up.
Search Institute calls this Express Care: showing a young person that they matter.
It sounds simple. It is anything but.
Care requires consistency.
At Elevate, Teacher-Mentors aren't occasional volunteers entering a student's life for a single event or semester.
They are full-time, salaried professionals embedded in schools and communities. They see students in class. They mentor outside of school. They know families. They attend activities. They walk alongside students year after year.
One Elevate parent described what that looks like:
“[The Teacher-] Mentor is very active, does home visits and has gotten my son involved in outside activities. He is also able to confide in his Elevate Teacher-Mentor to help him regulate his emotions.”
This is care becoming tangible.
And research tells us it matters.
Search Institute's Developmental Relationships Framework begins with Express Care because young people need relationships in which they experience warmth, dependability, listening, encouragement, and genuine interest.
Before an adult can challenge a young person, guide them, or expand their world, there has to be trust.
We're measuring that trust.
Elevate doesn't simply hope these relationships are forming.
We ask students.
In Elevate's 2024–25 national data, nearly three out of four students reported strong developmental relationships with their Teacher-Mentor, and 74% agreed their Teacher-Mentor cares deeply about them.
That tells us something important.
The relationships at the heart of Elevate aren't accidental.
They are being intentionally built.
Help more students experience an adult who keeps showing up.
Your support helps Elevate place full-time Teacher-Mentors in students’ lives, adults who know them, listen to them, and walk with them over time.
Help build the relationships that help young people thrive.
Because before a young person can begin imagining who they might become, there is often a more fundamental question:
Does someone see me?
For thousands of Elevate students, the answer is yes.
No one gets there alone.
No One Gets There Alone
A five-part series on developmental relationships.
Part One: Known · Part Two: Challenged · Part Three: Supported · Part Four: Heard · Part Five: Inspired