Changing The Lives Of
Children One Day At A Time!!
A Mentor’s Role
A mentor is a caring adult friend who devotes time to a young person. Mentors can fill any number of different roles. Yet all mentors have one thing in common: they care about helping young people achieve their potential and discover their strengths.
Mentors understand they are not meant to replace the role of a parent, guardian or teacher. A mentor is not a disciplinarian or decision maker for a child. Instead, a mentor echoes the positive values and cultural heritage parents and guardians are teaching. A mentor is part of a team of caring adults.
A mentor’s main purpose is to help a young person define and achieve their own goals. Since the expectations of each child will vary, it is the mentor’s job to encourage the development of a flexible relationship that responds to both the mentor’s and young person’s needs.
By sharing fun activities and exposing a youth to new experiences, a mentor encourages positive choices, promotes high self-esteem, supports academic achievement and introduces the child to new ideas.
A mentor may help a young person:
- Plan a project for school;
- Set career goals and start taking steps to realize them;
- Make healthy choices about day-to-day life; and
- Deal with a problem at home or school.
BFYAAA mentorship program will provide our youth with mentors to help them explore education options, learn leadership and life skills, gain a positive role model and be better prepared for their futures. The program plans to provide invaluable resources to boys and girls by matching them with adult volunteers in quality mentoring relationships.
The program will engage, educate, and motivate the youth to acquire the knowledge and confidence to pursue whatever they choose to in life. Building a positive new friendship strengthens a mentee’s self-esteem and can assisthim/her in exploring and developing their potential. With the assistance of their mentor, a mentee can get one step closer to realizing their dream.
