Mentor training to keep youth engaged
Mentorship impacts not only the lives of vulnerable youth, but also the lives of the adults who mentor them.
Bright Stars will hold its second mentor training session on Saturday, 24 October at Hillside Church in Hillcrest.
Modelled on the hugely successful international mentorship programme Big Brothers Big Sisters, Bright Stars is a mentorship programme for vulnerable children, providing ordinary members of the public with a simple way that they can play a powerful role in the transformation of the youth.
Statistics show that a mentored youth is:
* 53% more likely to engage in school,
* 32% less likely to engage in violence and
* 46% less likely to use drugs.
“Half the children who register for grade 1 do not matriculate,” said Bright Stars programme manager, Ruth dos Santos.
“Our mentorship programme pairs an adult mentor with a youth and they spend just one hour a week together. This is often all it takes to transform a life and give hope for the future and options to a life of crime which becomes an inevitability when they have so little support, opportunities and decision-making tools.”
Mentorship impacts not only the lives of vulnerable youth, but also the lives of the adults who mentor them.
“We recruit and train our mentors, who are ordinary members of the public, to walk alongside these youth, to care for them and about them, so they realise their value to society and reach their full potential.”
Interested volunteers can contact Bright Stars on info@peaceagency.org.za about attending. Alternatively, they can view the Bright Stars website: www.brightstarsmentors.org.za or Facebook page: Bright Stars Mentors to get more information and view testimonial videos from current mentors.
