By mentoring, you are willing to give your time, be a consistent person who can offer advice and support, share your life experiences and help mentees navigate challenges. Although the purpose of mentoring is to make a positive, long-lasting impression on mentees, often times these effects are experienced by many mentors themselves.
Being a mentor to anyone is not easy but being a mentor to a child or youth who’ve experienced trauma and/or instability, can be especially difficult. Fulfilling this important role for a child or youth who is healing from various hurts such as neglect, abuse or unmet mental health needs takes a lot of patience, commitment, empathy, good humor, compassion, creativity and, last but not least, time. Is it any wonder that we as a nation dedicate an entire month to celebrate the role of mentoring and those who choose to mentor?
Four years ago I was a bit lost. To help me find my footing again, I thought that a mentor or at least someone I could confide in, would be helpful. So I embarked on mentor relationship and it truly changed my life. And over the course of our three year relationship, my Mentor has become a father figure to me and a really close friend. Growing up in the environment that I did—parents struggling with addiction and having been homeless for a period of time—I wish I had had a mentor to help guide me through these difficult circumstances.
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