Who Benefits from Mentoring?
Young People
Many young people from all walks of life benefit from mentoring and the Young Love programs are developed with a focus on the goals of young people who are:
- disengaged or at risk of disengaging from the education system
- seeking to make the transition from school to work or further education
- pregnant or parenting
- keen to increase their ability to build interpersonal relationships
- experiencing mental health issues
- victims of sexual, emotional or physical abuse
- experiencing difficulty with drugs or alcohol
- seeking to improve their own self confidence
Young people involved in mentoring with Young Love programs are likely to experience:
- improvements in their relationships with family and peers
- an increase in their overall communication skills with others
- reduced feelings of isolation
- a reduction in risky behaviour
- enhanced social and emotional development
- increased options and opportunities
- increased resilience and feelings of hopefulness
- increased self esteem
Mentors
Mentors as volunteers experience enormous feelings of satisfaction from "making a difference" and opportunities to reflect on their own lives. Many mentors value the opportunity to give back to the community, and often talk about having learned a lot themselves from their mentees. Through their involvement in mentoring, mentors can also build new skills through training, meeting new people, belonging to an effective community group, and adding variety to their work and life experiences.
Community
Mentoring is an effective form of volunteering and it impacts positively on the community through the influence of positive relationships and increased community connectedness. Mentoring also contrinbutes to community strengthening through building collaborative partnerships as well as community capacity and abilities. Engaging young people and building their confidence and abilities will also increase the possibilities that they will get more involved in their own communities.