I gift my time to support children and young people’s emotional wellbeing, here’s a little insight…
Carole is a professionally trained Kids Inspire mentor and she makes a difference in the lives of the young people she supports via our mentoring scheme.
I trained as a volunteer mentor in January 2020 and since then I have supported young people on a one-to-one basis with their emotional wellbeing. A big part of a mentor’s role is to listen, to simply hear and to learn about the young person they have been matched with. The time we meet together (either on zoom or face-to-face) is spent offering a listening ear and is time just for my mentee - its important time away from their social circle to reflect on their own wellbeing.
Rewarding is the best way to describe how I feel, but on that note, I too find it a real honour to be trusted and invited into my mentee’s life, albeit for a short time.
Below is a recent report that I shared with the Mentor Coordinator. It’s something that each mentor completes and submits following a mentee meeting. During this meeting I was focused on preparing my mentee, Sally, for the end of our relationship – an important part of a mentor’s role, and a chance for the young mentee to test out their coping tools.
What have you done today?
We visited an Aquatic Park today – lots of fish and reptiles to look at. Sally was beyond excited, and I think she loved every minute – as I suspected she would.
After she had finished looking at everything (twice) and taking her videos (hundreds) we had an ice cream in the garden area and our ‘goodbye’ chat. I explained I wanted our last session next week to be happy so perhaps we could talk about our ending today. We chatted about our time together, had she had fun; did she think it helped her etc. We chatted about why she often gets worried/ anxious. “Everyone including adults, feel like this from time to time so it’s only natural” said I “but try not to let it hold you back – you have all the coping tools we’ve covered so use them whenever you need and remember how brave you’ve been zooming and coming out with me”. I told her she should be very proud of herself; she is clever, talented, articulate and very caring and that she had made our time together a real pleasure, something that I’ll never forget.
Our final session is a surprise but knowing she worries, we played a guessing game about what it could be – she has a really good idea now but hasn’t guessed exactly (Mummy knows and can tell her if she gets anxious).
What went well?
It’s always hard to tell with Sally what lands well but certainly the venue was a complete success. She seemed very happy.
Your reflections
I hope Sally has enjoyed our time together and benefitted from it. She is quite a serious little girl at times and worries about not being at home. I hope that all our zooming and going out has given her confidence.
Since writing this, I have now said goodbye to Sally after supporting her for 20 weeks. I am now waiting to be matched with my next mentee.
Mentoring is just one volunteer role that Kids Inspire offers professional training for, to find out more about volunteering at Kids inspire and how the gift of time makes a real difference in the lives of children, young people and their families please read more here.