32. New mentors, school holidays, processing and planning

I always find it inspiring and motivating when I interview potential mentors after they have completed their training. They are so enthusiastic, keen to begin the mentoring journey and, in some cases, are already offering their expertise as volunteers in support of the program development.

I have almost finished processing the applications for the 19 new mentors due to begin in our two new school programs in a couple of weeks. Just chasing up a couple of references and then the letters will go out inviting the mentors to join the program and to attend the matching sessions with the potential mentees during the first week of May. While all this administration is time-consuming, it is necessary and ensures that GR8 MATES meets the international Quality Assurance Standards which will give it credibility as it seeks to expand. In addition to the 3 schools already involved in the GR8 MATES program, we now have a further 9 schools definitely wanting to commit to the program. This can only happen with more funding, as I have mentioned elsewhere before.

We are now into the second week of school holidays. The day before the schools closed their doors for the holidays, I ran orientation programs for the two groups of students volunteering to be matched with a mentor. In one school, the enthusiasm was so great that most of the students already had their Parent's Contract returned and signed! Both programs have more students interested than we have mentors. While there might be some disappointed students when we get down to the matching, these are all positive signs for the future growth of the program.

I have collected most of the Log Sheets completed thus far by the current crop of mentors. These are simply a record of when they met with their mentees, the sort of things they talked about/covered and a record of any concerns the mentors had. These sheets are inspiring reading and I can see how so many of the mentees have been growing in self-confidence. For some mentors the mentoring journey might seem like a bit of a roller-coaster ride, yet that is pretty normal for this age group. With less than a term to go before the program formally ends, it will be fascinating to see what happens between now and then, the outcomes of the Exit Surveys and how many of these relationships will continue beyond the formal part of the program. One mentor has already told me she is keen to mentor her mentee until the end of the year, as she feels they have made a great connection and he will need support and encouragement to see through the year at school.

Lots of good things happening!

31. A Mentoring WOW moment!!!!

I was weary this morning heading to the office. My working day is packed full of appointments and things to do and I had to head off to a 9.00 am appointment. Before doing so I checked my emails and how pleased I am that I did so. This is the email I received:

Hi Robin,

Thought i would just let you know that i didn't receive this email in time so i headed up to school today as per usual...which turned out to be a great thing!! I ran into [School Coordinator] on my way into the office and he looked shocked to see me, understandably! But he said he had asked the mentees yesterday if they would be interested in being there as usual or skipping school basically??? [My mentee] had said yes, and hadn't received the message that it had been cancelled anyway... So the great part of this is that he was at school today because of the GR8 Mates Program!!! How cool is that :-) he had the option to skip but came to school because as far as he knew the program was going on and he was happy to be a part of it!!! I think that is fantastic and a great testimony to the results this program achieves with these kids... Just Tops!!!

Hope you have a great week .............

Teachers in New South Wales were involved in Industrial Action yesterday which meant we had to cancel the mentoring session. I had informed the mentors the previous day, but this particular mentor had not read the email and it turned out to be a wonderful blessing in disguise. Why this story is so great is because her mentee has been one of the challenging ones, but she has followed one of the golden rules of our program, once echoed by a student:"Don't quit on us!"

Another Wow moment which makes all our work worthwhile!!

30. Recruiting Baby Boomers

A busy time as I finish the training for our two new programs due to start in mid-May and spend the next few days interviewing the mentors 1:1 to complete the screening process. While I am doing this, they will individually complete the on-line Mentor Profiler. Tomorrow I visit the two schools involved in the pilot program to orientate their students and get them to complete the Pre-program Survey. I am going to push the fact that their mentors are awesome resources with heaps of networks they can access to help these young people transition from school to the work place successfully.

I remain in awe of all these mentors - wonderful, wonderful people with such compassionate natures :-)

I have spent the past week developing material to help us with our recruiting. We are going to target the Baby Boomers in a big way, as they must be the future of the volunteer mentoring group!! I spent a couple of hours at one of our local Volunteer Centres last week. The Coordinator was telling me that she has over 60 volunteers on her books, the majority of whom were over 50. She already had a list of 15 she was going to contact for the next program we are running in July, so I am hoping this will become a great partnership. One of our current semi-retired mentors is offering to speak about the program to groups like this and we are working on his presentation at the moment. He will also target the University of the Third Age folk as potential mentors and possibly train them as well - I still need to do more work on the training program for such an eventuality.

In the meantime, we have had 8 schools saying they want to be part of the GR8 MATES program. In addition to the 3 already participating, this brings to 11 the number of schools keen to participate in GR8 MATES. Why this is important is because we now have the ammunition to go looking for money in a big way during the next few months. Without more funding we will be unable to start another program.

29. Results of 6 month Surveys are awesome!

This week I asked all the mentors and mentees to complete a 6 month survey ie, they have been on the mentoring journey for 6 months. They were absolutely awesome. The students were clearly seeing the benefit of the program to their futures, while the mentors were so complimentary about their personal journeys thus far. The only negative comments came from two students who wanted more time with their mentors :-)

Some of the comments made:

"The program does really help with your future and gets you ready for work." (mentee)

"GR8 MATES has helped me understand what I want to do with my future life." (mentee)

"It's really good; learn things and helps you with getting your career on track." (mentee)

"It makes you realise great things about yourself and your career goals." (mentee)

"The program helps you have more of an idea on your future. It has helped me become more organised with school work. Give it a go because you never know where you might end up." (mentee)

"It's good just to talk to someone that has experience with the things your friends don't know or can't help you with." (mentee)

"The program can really give kids the support, motivation and encouragement they may not receive from home. So especially to some kids, the GR8 MATES program could be crucial! I love it and would do it again in a heartbeat!!" (mentor)

"Very satisfying to see the changes - progress in the mentee - a growing confidence. It stretches me to keep motivating him - at times requires great patience." (mentor)

"Have helped my mentee to see some of his strengths which encouraged him to believe in himself." (mentor)

"I think the program is awesome and I love catching up with my mentee once a week. Personally rewarding that I have this opportunity to positively impact a person and help them think about their future. I also find it keeps me accountable in my life; that I am walking what I talk." (mentor)

"Enjoying it - it's challenging. Key to work with young people, helping them to be resilient and think through choices. Benefits mentee for their present and future and mentors as it helps us to grow ourselves - sense of purpose is good." (mentor)

I met with the mentors after the mentoring session and we discussed how they will prepare their mentees for the formal end of the program in June. Mentors are now able to seriously consider whether or not they would like to stay in touch after we officially end the formal side of the program. I also asked the mentors to let me know what they hoped to have achieved by the time the program ends. Once again, the beauty of the program is its flexibility, as these relationships are in such different places at the moment.

Mentors are aiming to take their mentees to visit the work place during the next couple of months.

Meanwhile the two new groups of mentors are a couple of weeks away from completing their training. One mentor withdrew from the program, though this I have come to expect and prefer people to screen themselves out rather than create an issue for me! The rest of the mentors are having a ball and I am now chasing up the schools so I can do the orientation of interested student mentees before our schools close for a couple of weeks holiday in early April.

Tomorrow we meet to discuss how we can expand the program realistically. We already have 5 schools keen to participate in 2009 and, without funding, we have no hope of meeting this demand on our services.

28. Recruiting, training, wobbling, wonderful mentees

It's been a busy week. The training for the two new programs is going well and the schools are preparing themselves for the matching of the students with the mentors in early May. I hope to attend an orientation with the students interested in the program before the schools close for their recess in early April. In the meantime, we have had some definite positive responses to our Expressions of Interest Forms sent out to our local schools. A further 3 schools are keen to run the program in 2009 if this is at all possible. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions! Funding required .... and all these matters will be addressed at a meeting with my CEO and one of our volunteer mentors on 28th March.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at all the recruitment material I had gathered over the years. There is some great work out there, none more so than some excellent material produced by the National Mentoring Center (NMC)/OJJDP - highly recommended. The NMC also put together a helpful article about recruiting males. I followed some of their advice and changed the wording of my email distribution letter and could be having some success as I recruit for the second program at the school where we launched the program last year. Early days, though!

Meanwhile the mentors and mentees are meeting and many of them are continuing to write Resumes and chat about the mentees' work experience opportunities. There is a lot of great work being done and so much of it is simply confidence building. But, as always different mentees are in different spaces, so some mentors are still trying to encourage their mentees to start looking at themselves and their future in a more positive light. Tough when the home conditions are not too encouraging. We share different strategies during the debrief times and I remain amazed at how much is being achieved each week.

I am also asking mentors for quotes which can be used for marketing purposes and we will be taking photos for use on our website next week.

I continue to send out an email word of encouragement to all our mentors and those who are training, as I genuinely want them to feel valued and appreciated. Next week I will be conducting Surveys of the Mentors, finding out how they are feeling about the mentoring relationship, the program etc. and the following week I will do likewise with the students. I am also going to be discussing with the mentors how they think their relationship will move forward during the final months of the program. The mentoring partnership officially ends with our first pilot group in June.

27. Do young people really need mentoring?

We are in the process of conducting a survey of the 32 high schools we serve as we decide whether or not to create a strategic plan to expand the program beyond out three pilot schools in 2009. 9 schools voluntarily participated in the survey. Our focus was on the Year 9 and 10 students (aged 14 - 16), as this is where the focus of our GR8 MATES program is. Those participating in the survey included School Principals, Welfare teachers and Career Advisers. The survey was carried out for the most part by one of our mentors who volunteered his time to assist us. The results were collated and put together into a Final Report. This has now been circulated to the remaining schools that we serve together with an Expression of Interest Form which we would like to see completed and returned.

My expectation is that we will receive requests for assistance from mainly government schools, as they serve a variety of socio-economic groups. Independent or Private schools usually have smaller numbers so are able to run their own programs. From experience, as they need the numbers to pay their fees, they tend to be more protective about their student population and releasing information about them. However, as our Report shows, teenagers are teenagers and it does not matter where they go to school. They are still dealing with the same issues, perhaps just at different degrees. The Catholic Schools often have pastoral programs in place, so might not see the need for the GR8 MATES mentoring program.

So, what were some of the findings from the survey?

Major issues facing this age group included:

• Parental expectations and pressures.
• Peer pressure (often negative) leading to antisocial behaviour eg, bullying, binge drinking, partying, inappropriate sexual behaviour etc.
• Family circumstances eg, single parent families; blended families; successful parents who did not see schooling beyond Year 10 as necessary; lack of male role models; both parents working long hours, resulting in students having too much freedom and so reacting against school discipline.
• Students living further away from urban centres are isolated, sometimes naïve, bored etc. and this can lead to inappropriate behaviour.
• Those from lower socio-economic areas in particular might also lack effective role models with regard to dealing pro-actively with aggression, drug and alcohol issues and non-physical ways of resolving conflict.
• Some students appear to lack the self-confidence and self-belief to go on to Year 11 and Year 12 (the final years of school in Australia).
• Some students battle with the management of time ie, balancing school, homework, part-time jobs, social time.
• A few students fail to see the relevance of school.

The main reasons why students (often more boys than girls) are disengaging from school during their Year 9 included:

• Low literacy and numeracy levels;
• Low self-esteem (in one school particularly noticeable with girls);
• Student frustration – not seeing the relevance of education and/or not coping with academics;
• Problems with school discipline because of a lack of boundaries at home;
• Low motivation often as a result of a lack of support from home;
• Lack of communication and social skills;
• Negative peer pressure – also, feelings of inadequacy as some students don’t have access to technology at home;
• Lack of financial assistance to diagnose and treat borderline disabilities;
• Absenteeism/poor reports/not completing set tasks;
• Antisocial behaviour;
• Weaker students battle with competition and could feel inadequate.

Reasons given for schools wanting to participate in the GR8 MATES mentoring program included:

• More focused students;
• Less disruption in the classroom, thus allowing more quality teaching time;
• Mentors would share their life experiences and networks with students;
• Good for other students to see other adults in the school;
• Students connect with someone!;
• Student benefits from working 1:1 with another adult (another view/values);
• More positive students;
• Increase school retention rates;
• Students likely to be happier within and outside school;
• Establishes support and connection with the community;
• Student has a significant other, so there is a better chance of success;
• Students become more engaged with life, which is likely to result in positive outcomes;
• The mentor is seen as a safe, non-judgmental person for bouncing ideas off;
• Students might develop a more positive view to completing School Certificate, perhaps even continuing to Year 11 and 12;
• Parents will be supportive as it helps them too;
• Students will appreciate a mentor listening to them;
• An important opportunity for the sharing of information about work and life in general;
• Students will feel better adjusted and this will be a win for the community as well;
• As disengaged students are not working to their potential in class, missing one hour of class a week should not be an issue.

From all the research I have done over the years, there are so many common threads with that research and we need to remember that the whole concept of youth mentoring is 'relatively' new to Australia. There have been some programs around for 20 or so years, but they are few and far between. Indeed, we are hearing of programs having to close down due to a lack of funding - nothing new!

It would be wonderful to see a government take a long-term vision of youth mentoring and its value instead of wanting quick-fix results so that it can earn votes at the next election. Here in Australia (and, I might add, New Zealand where I lived for 8 years), even though I have only been in the country for about 18 months, there are so many issues that a visionary government could resolve. In particular in government funded schools:

• teachers could be respected and valued for the influential contribution they are making to their communities as educators;
• teachers so often feel that the government is draining them of every last drop of blood with scant reward or recognition (I hear comments like this often);
• teachers need time allocated to them so they can develop positive and healthy relationships with their students. This is the Teacher-Mentor idea, whereby teachers, through their interactions with students eg, goal-getting, ensuring the student is an active participant at school etc., will be sowing the seeds of mentoring;
• Peer Mentor programs being run by dedicated teachers given time from the timetable to devote themselves to this work - where older students are 'buddying' younger students. Given that Generation Y are desperate for RELATIONSHIPS with older, wiser folk, there are so many possibilities.

Another area that is a serious cause of concern and which echoes loudly and clearly through the survey is the impact of different types of families on the students and their behaviour - single parent; blended; de facto relationships; same sex couples; families where domestic violence was present, drug and alcohol abuse (as well as families in which the children are 'spoilt brats' and mum and dad fight all their battles for them - the 'bubblewrap generation' as someone described this generation of children! etc. No government in recent times has had representatives standing up and championing for the traditional family unit, which, again, so much research suggests is the key foundation of a stable, successful country. Many will probably throw up their arms in disagreement with this statement and remind us all that we are living in the 21st Century and times change. Of course they do, but sometimes there are some core values, such as family and the values around that, that stand the test of time and we allow political correctness to destroy the very fabric of society that MOST people deep down want to see maintained.

I hope to conduct a survey of students later in the year ...... there's another interesting journey.

This is no rocket science. Let's wait to see how our schools respond to this Report :-)

26. The days are long, the journey is worthwhile :-)

The training of the third group of mentors is into it's second week. There are only 7 potential mentors in this group, but we decided to go ahead in the hope that once the program is up and running we will be able to attract more mentors. The need in the Hawkesbury area, where this program is being run, is great. Situated 30 - 40 minutes from Penrith, which is probably the nearest urban centre, many of the students lead very isolated lives in these semi-rural areas. While this has its advantages, there are also problems when young people are bored - alcohol abuse, inappropriate sexual behaviour, unmotivated students etc. etc. Most students are not very street wise and it's clear that an effective mentoring program could assist many of these students to reach their undoubted potential. However, finding the volunteers will be a major challenge in the future, new strategies will be needed and considerably more thought will have to go into this aspect of the program.

So, by the middle of May we should have approximately 31 active mentoring matches in our three schools and we have just taken the decision to run a second program in our first pilot school from mid-July. Again, the recruiting of between 15 and 20 mentors will get under way from tomorrow.

While all this is going on, we are still considering how feasible it is to expand the program further in 2009. Our needs survey of 9 schools has been completed, the findings collated and a Report been put together ready for distribution to the other 20 - 30 schools in our region to see how many would like the GR8 MATES mentoring program in their schools. I'll comment further on that in a separate blog shortly .....

I also serve on a Reference Committee of another federally funded program. This particular program assists students who have been out of school for at least three months to turn their lives around by gaining a Certificate in hospitality ie, working in a cafe. The 20 week course is fantastic, the opportunities for the students amazing. Just under 50% of the students participating last year completed the course, a good start when one considers the nature of the students participating. We had a Committee meeting today and heard some wonderful success stories - one student decided she should return to complete her schooling after this experience; another found a job and has commented on the growth of his self-confidence as a result of participating in the course - awesome stuff, even if they don't complete this particular program. As I sit in these meetings, I can't help but think how some form of mentoring would probably assist many of these students as well. They do have a caring Case Worker and, if one could imagine another significant adult in their lives, even if it's only for six months, might that be a turning point for many of them? I don't know the answer. It will mean expanding GR8 MATES into a community program as well and that has other implications. I expect that I will explore this possibility in the months ahead - maybe in 2009??

Right at the moment, with training on a Monday and a Tuesday night, I am finding the 14 hour days tiring, but, oh, soooo worthwhile! :-)