|  | YOUTH
MENTORING GENERAL DESCRIPTION
| A mentor: a wise, loyal adviser;
a teacher; a coach; one to be rocked up to for help, assistance, and guidance.
The mentor is someone to go to for professional and personal advice, someone outside
the family who can help. As expressed by one who has experienced having a mentor:
the mentors help you study. They help you research for what college you want to
go to. They are available for everything you need, especially advice. The best
thing about the (mentor] program is that you have a friend, somebody you can talk
to other than your parents. |
BACKGROUND INFORMATION | The
objective of a mentor program for the Brotherhood of St. Andrew is be the source
of providing a mentor to each youth who would most benefit. The choice of a mentor
is clearly not restricted to a Brother. Selection should probably be made by a
steering committee working with the parish rector. An ideal starting time is when
a youth is enrolled in the parish class for confirmation. (Many parishes already
offer some type of “Sponsor” at this time). Having a mentor is a logical
next step. With a mentor the youth would have available someone who would be an
extension of the confirmation classes. Ideally the relationship would naturally
extend beyond and be a deeper companionship than that with an instructor. |
HOW IT WORKS A
chapter would have to be in full accord in deciding to embark on sponsoring a
mentor program. Nothing would be more tragic than initiating it and then have
it fall through for a youth - a promise not kept. If it is felt this is a challenge
to be taken up, a small steering committee would meet with the parish rector to
obtain his/her full backing. To start probably only one or two youths should be
selected. The person best matched with each of these would then be selected as
mentor. As noted earlier, the ideal mentor for a youth might well not be a Brother.
Each youth and mentor would then meet with the steering committee where a sort
of covenant, or agreement, would be stated to lay out the duties and responsibilities
each would accept. From that point on the only requirement of the chapter would
be to receive progress and update reports from the mentor and to offer any help
to the mentor that the chapter could provide. The next step,
logically, would be to extend the program to additional youths. Experience could
well show the need of including some youths from the neighborhood or nearby school
who are not members of the parish. This is where true evangelism is possible. |
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Although
a mentor program seems particularly aimed for and suited to a youth in a “single
parent” household, this should not be an overriding consideration. Each household
must be judged individually as to the need of the youth. Note that mentor programs
are already in operation in many places. Bro. Ivan Marks writes of such being
in progress in the Atlanta area which is jointly sponsored by the State of Georgia
and the local NAACP. Ivan is himself already conducting a broader program with
youth which includes mentoring.” In Austin, Texas, there is an ongoing program
called Project MAN (Men Act Now). This is a group of about 40 black business and
professional men, each of whom establishes a one-to-one relationship with an African-American
teenager - giving advice, counseling and lot of pats on the back. |
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