49. Celebration of Learning! What a lot of WOW moments!

Earlier this week the formal part of the first GR8 MATES pilot program came to an end with a Celebration of Learning at the school. A few parents attended, though we did not expect many, as it was held during the middle of a working day. Students and mentors received Certificates for participating in the program and both mentor and mentee shared something about their mentoring journey during the past nine months.

The presentations took a variety of forms. One mentor interviewed his mentee. Three mentees delivered brief Power Point presentations and some simply shared their moments in brief speeches. The power of effective mentoring was the message that shone through each and every presentation. One mentee shared how he was in a really bad space this time last year before joining the program. As a result of the time shared with his mentor, he is now motivated, focused, self-confident and has a definite career path which will include a university degree. He shared how difficult it was to share all his antisocial behaviour issues that were getting him into trouble, but his mentor had pointed out to him that, 'Failure is not a person!' They had processed everything and moved on.

Another mentee shared how her mentor had helped her shape a career path, had assisted her find work experience and had been such a strong support to her, a theme that was echoed by a number of the mentees. Another mentor shared what a privilege it was for her to be allowed to enter her mentee'slife and publicly thanked him for the opportunity to share. A mentee pointed out how much he had enjoyed the time with his mentor, chatting aboutthings he would not have talked to his parents about ....... and so it went on.

Jayden was a young person very unsure of himself when he joined the program. Nine months later he delivered a superb Power Point show of his jouney with his mentor, Margaret. He has given permission for extracts to be used, so here they are straight from his slides:


• When we were getting to know each other, (when we first met) we decided to look at what we had in common, which wasn’t a lot but we did have at least one thing in common and that was that we were both eager to work through this together and complete the tasks we set before us successfully.
• During the journey I changed my mind many times, I changed my mind about what kind of work I want to do, I changed my mind about how I want to live, I changed my mind about going to TAFE [ a tertiary institute] and I hope that all these changes will be for the best.
• I now know, I want to become a vet instead of a scientist, I want to spend less time wasting my time and using the time to help get me through life as a vet.
• I also know now that I don’t want to go to TAFE and with that spare time I will do voluntary work.
• From this mentoring journey I learnt a lot of things, things such as, What I wanted to do for my future career and how I was going to achieve the goals I set for myself. The mentoring journey has also showed me how I could improve my life so I wasted a lot less time on things that didn’t matter and I decided to use that time to help myself achieve my long term goals and I don’t think I could have achieved this without the help of my mentor and this mentoring program.

Jayden’s mentor, Margaret, publicly responded to his presentation and concluded with these words:

• I have enjoyed sharing this journey with Jayden. I have seen him grow in confidence and self-belief. He has made positive changes in his daily life, has discovered a career path that interests him and has become more assertive. I have enjoyed his sense of humour. I wish him well for his future and know that if he continues to believe in himself he will accomplish more than he ever dreamed of.

Marion also allowed me to share a poem she wrote for her mentor which she read out to everyone, another powerful testimony about the power of a mentoring relationship. This poem can be found on the website: http://www.yess.co.nz/ in the 'Mentor' section under the heading, 'Tribute to a Mentor from a Mentee.' Free to download for anyone wishing to share with a group of mentors in training or simply needing some encouragement.

And so I could go on - a memorable day which ended with a large feast enjoyed by one and all.

Letters were sent out to all mentors, mentees and the mentees' parents informing them that the formal part of the program has ended. A number of mentors will continue to meet regularly with their mentees until the end of the year and most appear keen to stay in touch.

I still need to collate all the Exit Surveys and other material completed at the end of the journey and will post some conclusions at a later date.

That same night the training ended for the next group of mentors beginning a new program at the same school. They are keen, motivated and anxious at the same time. We have to conclude the post-training mentor interviews when I return from two weeks leave :-) and then it's all go!!

48. First Program early evaluation results

The first pilot project of the GR8 MATES program comes to an end next week. This past week has been a time for reflection, completing Mentor Exit Surveys, Mentee Exit Surveys and the online Mentor Profiler and Student Performer. Although it's too early to make any conclusive statements, it is not too early to say that this first program has been a resounding success. Students who have completed the Student Performer online have shown growth in many areas. Early signs are showing that those students who have grown in self-confidence are beginning to make strides to reach their potential. As there has been more of a leaning towards school retention and the development of career pathways in this program, it is good to see how much more confident most students appear to be in these areas. I need to do a lot more work on the evaluations etc., but there is enough evidence to suggest that a school-based youth mentoring program like GR8 MATES can be life-changing for young people who have plenty of self-doubt and, perhaps, are beginning to disengage from school.

I am looking forward to seeing how the mentors have fared in the Mentor Profiler and hope that most of them will complete this during the forthcoming weekend.

The two other programs are becoming more settled. In one of the schools another mentee has left the school, so we are awaiting the paperwork from another student. Mentors involved in these processes are showing great patience and restraint, as it would be all too easy for them to walk away from the program. I keep all mentors informed of developments in the three programs via a weekly email note and the feedback about these tends to be positive. It's a small way of continually reminding them that they are valued.

On Tuesday night the next batch of mentors will complete their training. School holidays follows and then the matching process will begin in early August. I have had confirmation from the outgoing group of mentors that almost all want to continue in the program, if not in August then when we run another program in 2009.

47. Preparing for closure and some public speaking

The first GR8 MATES program will be concluding in a couple of weeks. One of our mentors gave a brief presentation on public speaking to the students, as each will be sharing something about their mentoring experience in the final Celebration of Learning event. 6 Hot Tips - Public Speaking can be found in the Peer Mentor section of the website (http://www.yess.co.nz/) .

After the presentation, mentors had a few minutes to chat about what they and their mentees would say when our video crew came around to interview them. The video crew are made up of Year 11 students (penultimate year of school). I met with them an hour earlier and told them of my plans to have a three minute video clip for the GR8 MATES website. During the mentoring session they visited the mentoring pairs and each participant shared something in 30 - 45 seconds. Next week the mentees will be completing their on-line Student Performer and the video team will film some of that as well as the Celebration of Learning. I am hoping that they will end up making two or three video clips we could use on a variety of occasions :-).

Anyway, I was chatting to a mentor and a mentee prior to the video clip being shot. We were talking about the Celebration of Learning and Simon, the mentee (not his real name), was saying that he intended to 'wing it' ie, make up his speech on the day. His mentor and I smiled. When it came to filming Simon, he froze! Highly amusing and I hope he has learnt something from that experience.

Most mentors commented that the public speaking presentation had been well-timed, as it had helped their mentees prepare more thoroughly for the video shoot.

At the end of the mentoring session one of the mentees came up to me to have a chat. He had been working with his mentor on management of time skills and had come to the conclusion that he was wasting far too much time, not allocating enough time to academic studies and needed to do something about it - lots of learning continues!

We have decided to allow mentors to invite their husbands and wives (where applicable) to the Celebration of Learning and it will be good if some are able to attend. One mentor has reminded me earlier today to invite someone from the local community newspaper - smart thinking and something I nearly overlooked. A reminder to develop a checklist for this Celebration of Learning for future reference.

The two other programs are getting under way slowly. I have had to remind the mentors not to be phased if their mentees are not responding to the email yet. Still early days and the connection between mentor and mentee is not there yet in the majority of cases.

In the one program the school has decided to give one of the mentees, who kept being away from school, a final chance to participate in the program, a good decision which we hope will pay off in the long-term.

I have also been preparing all the Parent, Mentor and Mentee Exit Surveys, whilst continuing to raise the profile of GR8 MATES by exploring different possibilities for future funding.

Yesterday a 10th school approached us keen for GR8 MATES to be included there. This morning the 11th school approached me for inclusion. The need is certainly there!!

46. Expansion plans - doing the hard yards!!

I am also at the point where we have to kickstart a major campaign to raise funds if we wish to see GR8 MATES going beyond the pilot stage. It is a tough call, as the demand for mentors of these young people is considerably greater than many people realise. And, as the economy starts slowing down and parents experience more problems paying the mortgage, people are made redundant etc., this, too will impact on these young lives. Australia has been experiencing boom times in recent years. One is not allowed to mention the words ' possible recession', but I am a realist and I can already see the signs - people battling to meet mortgage payments, more smaller businesses closing down, others cutting back their workforce or not employing new staff when others leave etc. Western Sydney, where GR8 MATES operates, is an area with many, many of these battlers. In addition, each time I enter schools to give presentations on career topics, as well as to supervise the mentoring programs, I am struck by the number of young people clearly lacking significant adults in their lives, parents with effective parenting skills etc. and this is becoming quite a burden. So if we can create an army of trained volunteer adult mentors, we will be able to encourage more and more young people to keep going after their dreams, learning how to make some sacrifices to reach these dreams, understanding the need to work hard and to keep on keeping on and so much more.

The Steering Committee is coming together slowly but surely and I expect things to kick in once I return from leave in mid-July. All I do know is that I am reaching the limit of what I can realistically be expected to do if we want to run a quality program.

I spent part of Friday sending out Query letters to organisations, businesses, Foundations etc. just to find out whether or not they would even consider an application. My thinking is that if the application stands to gain about $1,000 it might not be worthwhile completing the Application forms. This is because it takes a couple of hours each time at least to complete these forms and one has more than a 50% chance of being rejected - how to manage one's time effectively remains the challenge.

Somehow I have to galvanise people to get behind GR8 MATES and am keen to work with a team of people to achieve this.

45. Mentoring and seed sowing

A more settled week in many respects with the different mentoring programs this week. The mentor training is going well and we are having some great discussions in preparation for the mentoring journey which will start in early August (July is a holiday time here). I would like to spend more time developing new material for the training, but it's all a question of priorities at the moment.

Our first program that is drawing to a close sees so many positives each week. Just in the small things like a mentor being overawed at the response of a mentee to a challenge the previous week, a response that was way beyond what the mentor was expecting; or a mentor reporting that her mentee, who had been reluctant to participate in the Celebration of Learning, is now discussing what she will be sharing. Arrangements are being made for one of our mentors, with Toastmasters experience, to share some tips on public speaking with all the mentees this week. So, not only is it an opportunity to prepare for their final Celebration of Learning function in two weeks time, but they also receive a free life skills lesson. In addition, I hope to be meeting with three or four students involved in the school's video program, as they will make a three minute video/DVD which we can add to our website, use for training and recruiting of mentors in the future. Possibly the only disappointing point is that a couple of students have intimated that they don't want their parents to attend the final Celebration of Learning, a sad reflection on domestic issues.

The two new programs are more settled. In the one, it looks as though one of the mentees is moving school so will be lost to the program, while another mentee is seldom at school and missing too many sessions, which means we have an enthusiastic mentor unable to begin mentoring, while some other needy student would be benefiting from this time with a significant adult in his or her life. Looks like we will bring two new students into the program this week.

The good news is that our web-based email system is now working. I provide the mentors and mentees with a Password and an ID and they lock into the system and share emails with one another. All emails are monitored and, in a way, it gives me a chance to encourage, offer some ongoing training etc. to the mentors when they have some curly issues to deal with. I am also going to be able to create some new case studies for the training using some of the issues which get raised in this forum.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the email, as it is still in the experimental phase and has not yet been used by all mentors as effectively as it could have been used. Having said that, there is no pressure on either the mentor or the mentee to use the email and perhaps some won't use it because it is being monitored - fair enough. There are also always mentors who believe they have all the experience and the answers and are reluctant to discuss their mentoring relationship with anyone. When they do so, it's at a superficial level. That's one reason for regular surveys - keeps program staff in touch with what's going on. Over the years I have found these to be the relationships that might have had some success, though possibly not as much as if there had been a team supporting the mentor on the mentoring journey, brainstorming issues, sharing ideas etc. This is why the debrief session is usually so valuable. Just this last week during the debrief I was chatting to a mentor who said she would have liked to have had an exchange of mobile phone numbers, as she might have been able to intervene to stop her mentee ending a recent work experience. We don't allow the sharing of such information in the interests of safety and security of both parties. However, as I pointed out to her, that does not mean we can't revisit this and even give it a trial for a month in the latter part of a mentoring journey if there is no breach of Child Safety regulations etc. Maybe we can explore a more flexible approach in the future. This is why we have pilot programs. They allow us the chance to explore, experiment and discover what makes for the most effective mentoring.

Back to the email. Given that the majority of mentees are lacking in self-confidence, have limited knowledge about goal getting, have average to poor management of time skills and sometimes lack support from home, the email can bridge some of these gaps eg, small tasks can be set between the mentor and the mentee and the latter can check in at an agreed time before the next mentoring session to report on his or her progress. This not only develops a feeling of accountability, but is affirmation that the mentor cares for the mentee and is keen to see that mentee reach their potential. As is happening at the moment, one mentee is offloading some relationship stuff with the mentor and that is creating a strong connection between the two. The mentor is learning how to respond by taking the emotion out of the reply and being the 'wise guide', aware that the mentor's role is not to 'fix' anything. I think there is heaps of potential in this email system where students and mentors have access to it. Although all students will have access via their school library computers, they are also lazy about checking the email through that particular system.

Three weeks into the new programs, some mentors have already made significant strides, while others are quietly establishing the connection with their mentees who have more troubled, challenging issues they are dealing with. I keep reminding them all, that their time together is a time when seeds are being sown that will be nurtured and watered in life's journey during the weeks, months and years ahead. Fascinating to observe from the outside.

How I salute these wonderful volunteers each week and never take anything for granted!!