Tip for Mentors: Help Someone Heal. Reach Out to Cure the Holiday Blues

We’ve been hearing from some of our mentors and mentees about the different issues that young people experience during the holidays when they see everyone else seemingly happy and in the holiday spirit while they’re experiencing negative emotions with their family or home situation. 

So, though you just heard from us, we thought this would be helpful!

Reach Out to Cure the Holiday Blues

During the holidays we tend to get busy and spend less time with our mentees as our focus turns to our immediate families and our holiday preparation and trips.  This, however, is also a time when many of our mentees feel a sense of longing for the kinds of family love that they see portrayed in the media but may not be getting at home.  Children often are reminded of the losses they have experienced and the difference between their life and Ozzy and Harriet type fantasies. 

“Holiday blues" range from mild sadness during the holidays to severe depression.  Real medicine for holiday blues is knowing that someone cares about you.  If you’re feeling holiday blues, you can give yourself some healing by reaching out to your mentee.  Even if they don’t respond the way you want, you can know that you did something

So, please try to stay in contact with your mentee during the time between now and the New Year. 

o   A simple phone call from their mentor is a big statement that someone cares. 

o   Doing something special with your mentee is even more powerful when you are able to make the time. 

o   Don’t forget to send your mentee a Holiday card. 

o   If you go somewhere special during the holidays, perhaps you can send a postcard to your mentee.

o   A caveat: Try to resist the temptation of giving expensive gifts to your mentee.

 Finally, all of us at Youth Mentoring Connection are privileged during the holidays to witness thousands of caring relationships.  You can’t beat that for holiday warmth and cheer.

Connecting Mentors and Mentees through “Connecting Cultures”

It’s striking how much we discover our similarities by examining our differences. This past Tuesday, students from LeConte middle school not only found out their Paramount mentor matches, but they got a unique opportunity to get to know each other with help from our friends at Connecting Cultures.  Our two groups learned about their own heritage, as well as the cultures of others, through artifacts and art pieces from around the world in a beautiful mobile museum display. But let’s be honest, the best part about exploring our cultures is the food! All of our participants were also able to grind their own spice blends to be taken home and used in a recipe of their choice from various regions of the globe. It was a chance to learn, share, explore and connect. All of us at YMC, LeConte Middle School and Paramount would like to thank Connecting Cultures for this exciting experience. Check out more of what they do at http://www.connectingcultures.us/

True Colors at Paramount 11/5/13

During our True Colors session at the Paramount High School Mentoring program, mentors and mentees had the opportunity to learn more about their respective match through an activity called True Colors. Everyone was able to see who the spontaneous, compassionate, analytical and responsible individuals were. Mentors and mentees were then grouped by similar affiliations and were able to discuss their strengths, joys and values. This was a great and interactive way that the newly formed community was able to get to know each other!!!

WB: Have we met?

What another amusing and thrilling day with our WB mentors and mentees! From engaging in a little “back-to-back” activity to a small group discussion, the excitement does not end with this crowd. As some approach their final days as being “mentor-less” or “mentee-less”, we can only imagine the anticipation for this day to arrive. Please be prepared for more enjoyment to come with our WB mentoring program!

Paramount / Helen Bernstein Matches Revealed!

"Yes!" was the resounding response to the YMC staff question, "Are you happy with your mentor matches?" This Tuesday, all of our mentors from Paramount and mentees from Helen Bernstein High School and STEM Academy of Hollywood met to find out what the new pairings would be. After a large game of Human Bingo, where everyone scrambled to identify who corresponded with which fun fact, the mentor/mentee match-ups were revealed. We're very excited about the record-breaking 33 matches we've made this year... Off we go!

UOFA Screening on Aug. 24th, 2013

This screening was another opportunity for our mentees, mentors and supportive community to enjoy the films our youth had made this year at the Urban Oasis Film Academy. Those who attended had an opportunity to watch the films and get to know the stories behind the filmmakers and their different motivations to make these films. The audience also heard how the film-making process positively impacted their lives! Enjoy!

CHLA Hollywood - "Meet & Greet"

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This past week, we launched our CHLA Hollywood summer mentoring program... and it was a blast! Middle schoolers primarily from LeConte Middle School received an opportunity to get their "bowl on" and meet some cool adults at the same time. We call this our "Meet & Greet" session. "It's always exciting to observe mentees and mentors meet for the first time." Please be sure to stay tuned monthly as we share more updates regarding this program throughout the summer!

WB : How you like me now?

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Who doesn't love a friendly game of competition? Well, today our WB mentor and mentees had the opportunity to play a little game we like to call "How you like me now?" We created the game so that mentors and mentees could see "how well they know each other". It was fun to witness people become shocked at times after each answer was revealed because their response was different from their mentor or mentee.This just goes to show you, "you learn something new everyday!" I believe everyone had a great time at this session, I know I did! :)

Giovanni & Tim's YMC Story

"Only the guidance from a mentor could make a fifty pound weight lost goal turn into a result of losing one hundred and twenty pounds in just a two year period. The gratitude that I have for my mentor Tim Windgard continues to exceed new heights as I continue to relies how much he has truly change my life. This Malibu local saw me, a twelve year old, two hundred and eighty pound African American male growing up in south central that had no academic motivation for education, no self-esteem because of obesity. This individual had no desire to be different than the troubling drop out students, gang bangers and poor role models that were all to familiar. My mentor Tim saw this young individual and told himself that he needs to contact Youth Mentoring Connection so he can invest time into this young man’s life because he’s going to be successful some day.

Some might say such events as losing as much as one hundred and twenty pounds, becoming a great African American surfer and turning my whole general perspective on school around is much to have accomplished before and during high school. I say it’s just the beginning. The beginning of a developing mentality to not just be the best, but set the bar with my own personal best. A personal, persistent mentality in hunger of new opportunities to challenge myself and improve. This mentality continues to develop because I still haven’t reached the pinnacles I plan to reach. This lead me to be on the search for the door to the new opportunity that will mold me into a better, brighter and more persistent young scholar.

In Youth Mentoring Connection giving me a mentor or what I see him as, the father figure I never had, he paved the we for today and myself successfully finishing my freshmen year of college with a 3.3 GPA. I plan to continue my education at Loyola Marymount University and majoring in business administration, political science, and minoring in environmental justice. I will continue doing various internships and jobs that are guided toward my major during undergraduate. Following that, I plan to continue my education in graduate school at Stanford University and at the same time start generating profit for the company I am in the process of starting with a Stanford Graduate Chemist and few students from UCLA. We are developing a water conservation company that will innovate the waste management industry. After that, I will run for Speaker of the Assembly for the State of California. Then I will run for Governor of California. Following that I will run for President of the United States. After that I plan on opening up a non-profit that reflects the same core values as Youth Mentoring Connection. I want to continue YMC’s mission to help connect more individuals to invest their valuable time into young inner city kids most say will be nothing in life. Similar to what most people said about me at a first glance. YMC connected me with my mentor and proved the nay sayers wrong. I want to help save lives just as YMC did with mine.

In the summer of 2011 the Metlife Foundation and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging(N4A) flew my mentor Tim and I out to Washington, DC for a Older Volunteers Enrich America Awards reception were Tim’s received a national honor. He received the Silver Honor for the national Mentoring Award. Part of the event article reads, “Tim Wingard, 69, has been a volunteer at the Youth Mentoring Connection (YMC) for seven years.YMC awakens at-risk youth to their power, unique gifts and purpose by matching them with caring adult mentors. Tim, who still surfs, volunteers his time for the surf program and brought his mentee, Giovanni (Gio), surfing on weekends. At 13, Gio weighed 285 pounds and was struggling in most areas of his life in South Central L.A. Tim taught Gio how to eat healthfully, to surf and to be a proud, responsible man. As a result of Tim’s mentoring, Gio lost 120 pounds. Gio is now president of his high school’s debate team, an honor student, surfer and basketball player who has been accepted to several universities. Tim and Gio remain extremely close five years after first meeting.” Youth Mentoring Connection first changes lives of the mentee, then changes lives through the relationship with the mentor and the end result is that YMC enriches both lives."

Write the past, create the Future @ WB

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At our WB session yesterday, mentors and mentees were able to write their past and create their future. For most of us, this is not easy to do. However, when you have support from a great community like WB anything is possible. If poetry did not exist... we wouldnt be YMC!

Path of Your Life!

In out last Viacom Mentoring session, our mentor and mentee matches participated in "Path of Your life" where they were able to reflect on their life path and where they want to see themselves in the future. It was a great opportunity for our matches to learn about each other and to see the challenges and successes they have experienced in their life so far!

Looking back moving forward mentors and mentees were able to plan for their futures together... Knowing that we (mentor & mentee) both have hurt and helped others, we make the conscious decision to wash away our sins and wash in our blessings together!