Volunteer mentoring
Volunteer mentoring is a one-to-one relationship between a volunteer adult and a child or youth lacking extensive family support. The aim is to enhance the personal development of the junior partner (mentee) in general or to achieve more specific and more short term goals such as overcoming behavioural problems, better school performance or a better integration into his/her environment. Mentor and mentee generally meet a few hours per week and pursue positive joint activities.
How does it work?
When a volunteer mentor feels concerned about today's youth,
when a volunteer mentor wants to offer emotional ties and support to a lonely child or youth in his neighbourhood, he can call Parrains Par’Mille who will meet him and a Psychologist will investigate his/her offer. If this volunteer mentoring offer is appropriate, Parrains Par’Mille looks for a possible mentee.
Then, Parrains Par Mille helps the mentee and his legal representative to meet a Mentor.
When volunteer mentoring is possible, (family-mentee-mentor are pleased to establish a relation) arrangement and rules are set forth by Parrains Par’Mille and both family/mentee and mentor have to conform to them.
Some indicators for volunteer Mentor:
As Catherine Enjolet says:
A mentor gets involved to nothing but to what he feels like.
A mentor commits himself only to what he feels up to.
The mentor tries:
- To allow a child to cope with his family without challenging parental rights.
- To allow a child to find again emotional and educational basis. There is no (competition) rivalry spirit with the natural family. The situation must be accepted without value judgement. The mentor does not take the place or the father or the mother, he offers something else.
- To offer a place where the child must be able to create emotional and structuring bonds. The mentor gives reference marks to a child and allows him to come out.
The mentor does not only provide occasional help . He offers a long lasting help with the agreement of the family. The relation between the mentor and the child starts and evolves according to the needs and the will of each one.
The relation is a free and mutual agreement, between the mentor, the family and the child. This relation is under full and entire responsibility of the family or the legal representative of the child.
Mentoring is not adopting :
It is not about to give a child to a family, but to give a second family to a child.
The child may correspond to a desire from the mentor, but in any case he must be a need.
