The month of January was my first month as the Mentoring Director at Youth Horizons. I’m still learning and will hopefully continue to learn. The staff there is great and the mentoring team has been awesome. Jimi, Tony and Donnovan have helped a ton as I tried to sort through how mentoring works and some new ideas to grow the program.
When you start something new, it is important to think through… what are we doing? In the simplest terms possible what is the mentoring team at Youth Horizons up to? To state this question another way.. If I were going to explain my job to Jesse (our 6-year-old son) how would I explain it to him? This is what I would say, “we help people help kids.” At Youth Horizons, we are the advocate. We are the one’s that build the bridge between the ones that need help and the one’s that want to help.
At first glance that explanation may seem kinda insignificant. At least it seemed insignificant to me until I met Dom. Dom is one of our newest mentors. He has only been mentoring in our program for 1 month, but at Dom’s interview he mentioned that he had begun mentoring a boy “on his own.” There was an at risk boy who began attending Dom’s church. Dom saw the need, reached out to the boy and started spending time each week. Dom’s relationship with the boy grew, but there was no one there to help Dom. As Dom began to experience difficulties and challenges, he needed advice, but had no one to turn to. Finally Dom had to end his relationship with the boy because of a few specific challenges that arose.
What happened in Dom’s case? Here was a guy who wanted to help a boy. He had a desire to help and so he did. But what was missing was the help and support that Dom needed to succeed. Dom’s story is an example of the important role that Youth Horizons plays in the lives of the mentors. Our mentors are people that want to help and have big hearts to give, but even the “big hearted” people need a little extra encouragement and help from time to time.
In our mentoring program we screen, train, and supervise the adults that are matched up with children in Wichita. Or stated in 6 year old language. We help people help kids.
Thanks to those of you that have helped and supported Youth Horizons through your gifts and prayers. Thanks to those of you that have supported my work at Youth Horizons, through your gifts and prayers. I’m only a month in to my position as mentoring director, and so far I’m loving the work!
Rodney Bartlett
Mentoring Director
Filed under: Monthly Letter Tagged: | Mentoring, Youth Horizons
