Today I'm excited because I get to meet my new bouquet of
at 1:00, and many of them are Westwood-Bales alumni.
I've made a balloon bulletin board to post their pictures:
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| Banner Font by Kimberly Gaswein: KG Chasing Cars |
These specially-trained teenaged mentors
make weekly visits to a handful
of our students who need
an extra dose of TLC, who need
a cardiac connection, who need
a faithful friend.
PALs model healthy habits and lifelong social skills to positively impact my school family. Every year I experience how special that PAL relationship is.
I love to watch these teens lift off and soar with their PALees.
I recently unearthed a handout that I created when I began a mentoring program back in 2000 at Jamison Middle School;
here's what I sent out to my teachers and central office staff:
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I recently unearthed a handout that I created when I began a mentoring program back in 2000 at Jamison Middle School;
here's what I sent out to my teachers and central office staff:
****************************************
The “Prophet Share”
Program:
A Unique Mentoring Experience
According to a special advertising section in Reader’s Digest,
kids who have a mentor are:
46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs,
27% less likely to begin drinking alcohol,
50% less likely to skip school,
33% lesson likely to hit someone.
Who wouldn't want that for our future, right? Our Prophet-Share mentoring program is
designed to help our students make an additional connection with an adult role
model in a world that for them is often times very disconnected.
The adult is the “prophet”
and the sharing is simply investing your time into a child. The interest rate on your return is
determined entirely by you – sound too good to be true? The more you give, the greater the rate
of interest and the more valuable the return. The return, then, is the sum totally of your
investment plus interest. What a
fabulous feeling when that dividend comes in!
What does a mentor do? You aren’t doing as much as being.
ü
Being an active listener
ü
Being a responsible adult
ü
Being a caring friend
ü
Being a confidence
builder
ü
Being a role model
ü
Being a connection
It’s a win-win situation because you will profit knowing
that you have made a difference in a child’s life and the student, of course,
profits from having experienced the connection with a mentor like you. Give it some thought – the time
commitment is about ½ an hour every week.
Thank you for your involvement in this important endeavor!
****************************
And those staggering stats are from 13 years ago!
Does your school have PALs or another mentorship program?
Our PAL program (Partners At Lunch) involved staff members mentoring a student who could benefit from a little extra TLC, a male role model for a child who may not have a dad in the picture etc. They meet with their little buddy twice a month at lunch. They might just talk, play a game, or go out to McDonalds etc. We have had teachers, principal, janitors, assistants all as adult PALS. The kids love it and so do the adults!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this! Sounds like a win-win for sure. Thanks for sharing, Jo.
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