Holyoke Boys and Girls Club starts staff mentoring program

This guest post was written by Megan Grant, director of program development for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke.

For 119 years, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke has been in the forefront of youth development in the Holyoke community, working with young people from disadvantaged economic, social and family circumstances.

Last September, the Club kicked off its staff mentoring program, in which trained staff members mentor one or more Club members. Mass Mentoring Partnership had provided training for our staff on the basics of mentoring and the impact it can have in a youth’s life. After the training, staff were invited to join our Staff Mentoring Initiative.

To date, we have successfully matched 20 of our youth with caring staff mentors. These mentors check in every day at the Club with their mentees, keeping up to date on school or family concerns while also providing a reliable and consistent adult presence in the lives of our youth. The Club also sets aside one-on-one time every week for each match. During this time, mentors and mentees go for a walk, shoot hoops, play cards, or just spend time together.

We had a special event in late December which allowed all of the mentors and mentees to get together and celebrate the amazing work happening in this program. 24 mentors and mentees travelled to Boston to attend the Celtics vs. Pistons basketball game. Our program members were also invited down to the floor while the teams warmed up pregame!

Justin and Sam before the Celtics game in December

Youth Development worker Justin Bresnahan attended the game with his mentee, Sam. When asked about his experience so far as a mentor, Justin said, “I really value the one-on-one time…I am surprised by Sam every day. He is the teenage version of me.”

He says the best moment int heir match so far was when he told Sam that they were going to the Celtics game. “Seeing his face – I felt like I had just given a kid gold. And at the game, when we were down on the floor watching the warm-up, it was 100% pure joy for both of us.”

Sam previously never had a mentor, and did not know much about mentoring before he joined this program. When asked how he felt about the program so far, he said, “It’s nice. I like Justin because he is so enthusiastic about things…and is always there to help me when I need it.”

The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, founded in 1892, is an affiliate of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, one of the nation’s oldest and premiere youth organizations. Today, the Club serves approximately 4,000 young people. The Club has an extensive tutoring program and a variety of activities ranging from basketball, volleyball and swimming to table tennis, arts and crafts, computers and media arts. For more information please call Megan Grant at 413-534-7366 x 100.

Why I mentor: Teresa Herd, VP of creative services at Staples

January is National Mentoring Month, and we are highlighting a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s blog is a Q&A with Staples’ VP of Creative Services, Teresa Herd, a mentor to a number of youth. Staples is supporting a statewide mentoring public awareness campaign for the third consecutive year.

• Why is mentoring important to you?

It is important to me to feel like I am doing something in this world that is for someone else. I have been extremely fortunate in my life. I have been supported and loved. So in return, I wanted to share my time, my experience and myself with others who may not have been as lucky as I have been.

• What is the most rewarding experience you’ve had mentoring?

I taught a kid to count change and tell time with an analog clock. He is 15. We had been working on it for two years. I did not enter this hoping for anything for myself. These kids have been through more in their short lives than we will be through in a lifetime. There cannot be an expectation that they will “give back” in a way we are accustomed. My hope is that my mentee will be able to survive on his own once he leaves the system, so I focus on giving him skills he can use…and also try to laugh a lot!

• What piece of advice do you find most helpful for the people you mentor?

It really depends on the kid and understanding what they need. I mentored a college student and we talked a lot about how to get a job, reviewed interview questions, where to look, what to wear etc. I also mentor a 15-year-old who has been in the system most of his life. We talk about life skills. The importance of education. The importance of being nice to people. How to get what he wants in life in a way that is productive. The range is huge. There is no magic bullet.

• What advice would you give to other adults looking to become mentors?

I tell them it is a wonderful thing to do. That it is a huge commitment. The focus needs to be on the child. They likely will not thank you. They may not even speak to you for the first few visits. They will feel you out and make sure you are a safe person for them to interact with and even then, you may not get the rewards that you expect. So if you go in with no expectations you will be pleasantly surprised by the little things.

• Who has been a mentor in your life? What are some of the lessons they taught you?

I have had many. I had a great high school art teacher. She really helped me understand art and guided me into my career. In college I became friends with an interpreter for the deaf. She was 10 years older than me. She initially hired me to baby-sit her 2-year-old, but we became good friends and she helped me navigate through some tough times in school. I have had a few very good bosses who I learned a lot from and a coworker who agreed to mentor me when I was trying to advance my career here at Staples. So many great lessons learned from all. I try to give back whenever I can.

• What inspired you to become a mentor?

I have done a lot of work for organizations and on boards. I wanted to do something where I could interact directly with the people supported by the organization. And I really like kids! I still do the other stuff but enjoy the mentoring the most.

• What mentoring programs have you been involved in?

Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Home for Little Wanderers, AFC Mentoring and The Point Foundation.

How mentoring shaped one woman’s life

January is National Mentoring Month, and we are highlighting a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s blog is a Q&A with Mandy Drew, who leads usability research, recruiting, and video projects at Alleyoop, a division of Pearson. Alleyoop is helping kids get ready for the 21st century workplace by attacking the college readiness problem. Mandy is equally passionate about helping teens realize their goals and aspirations, just as she did herself.

Mandy Drew

• Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born, raised, and casserole-fed in a small, rural town in the great state of Michigan. In some ways, I am still very much a product of that environment. In others, I know I owe my current successes to the many caring mentors who helped me believe in myself, showed me how to live up to my own potential, and made me understand that there is no limit to my own possibilities.

• Why do you think youth mentoring is important?

Growing up, I often felt the extremely conservative values surrounding me did not match the very liberal views I held. As a teen, I worried there was something wrong with me because I longed for a much less traditional lifestyle than what was typical of the region in which I lived. Without open-minded mentors to help me understand the world is a very big place with many different points of view, I may have continued down a path of alienation and disillusionment.

• Who were influential mentors in your life growing up? What did you learn from them?

Ms. Smith was my 11th grade history teacher, and she became a real mentoring force in my life. At the time, I was beginning to explore the feminist side of myself and I really loved how she taught not only the “male” side of history, but what she called “herstory.” She encouraged me to feel empowered as a female in an environment that found that type of thinking pretty subversive. I don’t know how she did it: not only was she going through a divorce that year, she was also battling breast cancer. By the middle of the year she had lost all her hair due to chemo treatments, yet she refused to wear a wig. She just wore her bald head to school with pride every day and eventually, as she recovered, her hair slowly grew back in. I remember thinking that was so brave of her. I TA’d for her my senior year and we both celebrated the day she grew enough hair that she could put it back in a tiny pony tail.

• What do you think is the most important thing a mentor can do for a child?

The most important thing my mentors did for me was to broaden my horizons. They showed me there was so much more to life than what I was currently experiencing. They told me how much better life could be and they told me exactly what I needed to do to get there: work hard and really commit to my education. It was hard waitressing my way through school—first through community college, then earning a bachelor’s degree, and finally achieving my master’s degree—but Ms. Smith was right. It was worth it to be where I am now.

• If you have personally been a mentor, tell us what that experience has been like. If your organization has been involved in supporting mentoring, tell us what you are doing and why your organization is involved in mentoring.

The Alleyoop team has a very strong commitment to supporting and mentoring young people in our community. Currently we’re working with students at Bird Street Community Center in Dorchester, and this month, we’re hosting students from Boston Collegiate Charter School. This spring we’ll be conducting our first job shadow days. Personally, I am in the process of becoming a Big Sister with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, and I also serve on Boston Collegiate Charter School’s Collegiate Council.

• Complete this sentence. If every child had a caring adult in their life…

Then every child would have a chance to see beyond their current situation and understand there’s no limit to their own possibilities.

Why I mentor: Katelyn Biancamano, integration coordinator at Staples

January is National Mentoring Month, and we are highlighting a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s blog is a Q&A with Staples’ Integration Coordinator, Katelyn Biancamano, a mentor at the John Andrew Mazie Memorial Foundation in Framingham. Katelyn’s mentee is a Framingham High School student who she has mentored for almost two years. Staples is supporting a statewide mentoring public awareness campaign for the third consecutive year.

1. Why is mentoring important to you?
   I began mentoring as a way to give back to the community. I have been lucky enough to have positive influences and support throughout my life, so I wanted to be able to help others experience that.
2. What is the most rewarding experience you’ve had mentoring?
   I can’t choose one particular experience that would stand out as the most rewarding. The reward is the relationship that you are continuously building with your mentee.
3. What piece of advice do you find most helpful for the people you mentor?
   I actually feel that it is most important not to give advice when mentoring. It is important to be there for your mentee and be supportive and a good role model, however, you want them to learn on their own and be who they are, not who you want them to be. You find that they don’t need advice to make the right decisions or to act appropriately. The whole program is more about helping the student realize their own potential, and to learn that they are in control of their life and future, and that there is importance in every decision they make.
4. What advice would you give to other adults looking to become mentors?
   I would think any mentor in the Mazie Mentoring Program would agree that you get just as much, if not more, out of the program than the students do. My only advice would be to give it a try, and don’t worry about whether or not you think you would be a “good mentor”. The Mazie Mentoring Program does an excellent job at matching students with mentors, and while you could be matched with someone from a completely different background, you will be surprised at how similar you and your mentee are, and how great of a friend you will have.
5. Who has been a mentor in your life?
   Growing up my parents were always extremely supportive and were great influences – I was very lucky to have that. They helped shape my morals and values growing up, and helped me to be the person I am today.
6. What inspired you to become a mentor?
   I had always been involved in community service activities throughout my life, but once I graduated college I didn’t have as many opportunities presented to me, and I found that I wasn’t taking the time to seek out these kinds of opportunities. I saw an advertisement on our company portal for the Mazie Mentoring Program, attended an informational session, and knew it was the program for me.

The John Andrew Mazie Memorial Foundation is dedicated to helping aspiring Framingham and Waltham High School students realize their full potential. For more information: www.mazie.org/become-a-mentor

Meet the match: Stacey and Keiana

January is National Mentoring Month, and we are highlighting a number of perspectives on mentoring, events, and ways you can get involved in the field. Today’s blog is a Q&A with Stacey, a mentor at Cambridge Family & Children’s Service. Stacey has mentored Keiana for three and a half years.

Stacey and Keiana

• What life challenges did your mentee face before you met?

  Keiana didn’t have a major challenge to overcome in school or with her attitude. Her biggest challenge has been staying productively occupied and happy at her grandma’s apartment, where she and her two brothers spend most of their time outside of school. They don’t have a lot to do there, and they don’t share fluency in a common language with their grandma, so they get bored and squabble and wish that their mom didn’t have to work so much.

• How did your mentee begin to overcome these challenges as a result of the mentoring relationship?

  Keiana loves to get out of that apartment and see new places and have new experiences. She sees that there’s a whole world out there that eventually she’ll get to navigate, with many more choices than are available to her now. This year, she’s started to be able to do that independently too, going to the library or to visit with friends.

• What have been the biggest benefits for you – the mentor – as a result of your relationship?

  I get to spend time with a great kiddo nearly every weekend. I love talking with her and being with her. She brings me out into the world to do lots of things I’d otherwise miss. She’s so much fun to be around because, whenever we do something new to her, I get to experience it as if it were new to me, too. I love introducing her to new places and things, and learning about which ones she loves that might become part of her life going forward.

• What has your mentee learned or gained from the relationship?

  Keiana says she wouldn’t have known what college she wanted to go to or what career she wanted when she got older. She also says that she has me to help her do her homework and work harder in school, so that she can be whatever she wants to be when she’s older – like a vet tech, a technical support representative, or a fashion designer!

• What are your favorite activities to do together and how have they changed over time?

  Keiana’s favorite has always been swimming. So her favorite hasn’t changed, but her ability has. She’s become such a strong swimmer since I first met her! She likes to do handstands and backflips in the water, too. We also love bike-riding, and she’s gotten better at that, too. Once, we rode from Arlington to Lexington together on the bike path, and Keiana wore the helmet we got from a program for her. We also like doing lots of baking, cooking, and arts and crafts. Keiana thinks up great, imaginative arts and crafts projects.

• Looking into the future, what are your wishes for each other or for your relationship? Note any goals you have set together.

  We hope we’ll be matched for years more, and keep seeing each other almost every weekend. Keiana used to not know about going to college, but now she hopes to go somewhere in the area – maybe Boston University or an area school with a good Vet Tech program (which is a career I first told her about). So, we hope we’ll stay close at least until then, and if she does stay in the Boston area, then even beyond!