Today, Los Angeles; Tomorrow, The World!

When China and Peru want to do mentoring where do they turn for help?  Youth Mentoring Connection of course!

When Alberto, Teach for America teacher from Peru visited California this month he was looking for the most effective approach to mentoring that he could replicate in his country.  His search led him to Tony LoRe and Youth Mentoring Connection.  Reminds us of another Feb visit, when we hosted a delegation of 35 high ranking dignitaries from Macau, China.  When asked why they chose Youth Mentoring Connection (YMC), they replied that their research pointed to YMC as being the most innovative approach.  They were impressed with our graduation rates, success reducing gang involvement, mentor support and mentor testimonials about how the experience changed their life as well as their mentee. Tony, George Shohet (YMC Board Chair) and selected mentors Michael & Dani Carter and mentees Sergio, Imelda and Giovanni spent a day training the entire Chinese delegation in our mentoring process.

Watch for Youth Mentoring Connection's model to spread throughout the U.S. and the world!

HBO- Holiday Party

In honor of the holidays we decided to have some fun by playing the White Elephant game at the HBO holiday party. The mentees had a chance to spend quality time with their mentors and open really cool gifts. The game got really exciting because they got to "steal" a couple of the gifts from each other, this of course following the rules of the game.

Tuesday with Mentor and Mentee - Kim and Stacey

Dear Kim,

“Having you as my mentor for a second year has meant so much knowing you are serious about seeing a better person within me. Last year our relationship was kind of restricted and this year we’ve been through the happy times and the bad times as well. With your help, I’ve become more open minded and I’ve made wiser decisions. I will never forget when we went bowling with my brother and kicked his rear end lol XD”

Your Mentee, Stacey

CHLA Junior I - Mentee Summit

Mentors take a sit back and practice their active listening skills as mentees engage in a dialouge/discussion with one another. Our youth today are often silence by adults and what the mentee summmit does is allow a space for the youth to speak about what's on their minds without any adults input or interruption. It is always amazing to hear how much our youth have to say.

CHLA Senior I Reach for Your Dreams

Mentors and Mentees went through a community building activity and helped each other "reach for their dreams".

Adams Grande Game of Life

Mentees and Mentors experience a life size version of the game of life! This game was created to give the mentees a little taste of life and how to use money wisely.

CHLA Senior I Family Night

Mentors meet their mentees families and families learn more about what YMC is all about.

CHLA Senior I Mentor-Mentee Pact

Mentors and mentees make their agreements for the next 9months.

CHLA SR I Matching

Here are your new matches for CHLA Senior I cohort!

CHLA JR Fantasy Island

Mentors and mentees draw out their neighborhoods and share what's similiar and different in their neighborhoods. After, mentors and mentees would create an ideal world they would want to live in together.

Adams Grande Family Night

Family night is an opportunity for the mentor to meet their mentee's family and to hear from the family members themselves on how thankful they are for mentoring.

Childrens Hospital Seniors I Cohort - Choas Bowling

CHLA Senior I Cohort - Returning mentor+mentee matches were able to play a full game of bowling while new mentors and mentess played "chaos bowling". Each mentor was seperated into different lanes and were given truth or dare questions. Each mentee would rotate between mentors, bowl, and play truth or dare.

When the song of the angels is stilled...

"When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart."

Dr. Howard Thurman

Happy 2011

We return, restored and ready to do the vital work
that fills our lives with purpose. 

Please join us in healing Los Angeles and the world.

peace and blessings,

Youth Mentoring Connection

peace and blessings,

Tony

Jackson Browne- An Evening Under the Stars

Video footage from Youth Mentoring Connection's special benefit concert with Jackson Browne on October 7, 2010. Jackson talks about his belief in youth mentoring and the importance of mentors in the lives of youth. Funds raised from this concert will go towards Youth Mentoring Connection's dream of an Urban Oasis in South Central Los Angeles.  Youth need a place to feel safe and have their needs met so that they can dream of a better life.

Kike Has Graduated!!!

On June 17, 2010 Jose Enrique Gutierrez (aka Kike) graduated from Jefferson High School.

5 minutes ago Kike proudly walked into YMC offices to show off his fresh new diploma...more celebrating.

A few years ago, many people doubted that this day would come.  But Kike has a mentor and a lot of people who love and believe in him. 

Last week at our Warner Bros. mentoring program session Kike made the announcement and an entire room of people cheered and cried and celebrated.  They lived the story with Kike.  They saw him struggle to catch up.  They know about the gang stabbing that he survived and the role that his mentor played in that.  They heard about his spiritual awakening at our retreats.  But mostly they saw the big heart inside this big boy...who is becoming a big man.

So many others in the Warner Bros. program graduated too.  We celebrate them and their struggles to make it to this momentus day.

Congratulations Kike.  Congratulations to all of our graduates!

with love and pride from YMC.

Tuesday with Mentor and Mentee- Donielle & Ashley

"I would like to thank my mentor for always being there for me when I needed her. I want to thank her for being who she is. She showed me she cared for me because she always did her best to go and pick me up. She also always gave me good advice. From this program I learned that we can have somebody that is going to be there for us like my mentor Donielle".

I love you Donielle!

-Ashley

Tuesday with Mentor and Mentee - Daisy & Odalid

"I would like to thank my mentor Daisy for taking me out to the theater and for taking me to the park. My mentor let me know she cared for me when she went surfing with me and helped me learn how to surf. From this program I learned to respect older people".

-Odalid

Tuesday with Mentor and Mentee - Vickie & Dineisha

"My mentor Vickie means a lot to me. She has been there for me since we first met. She listened to every problem I had and I love her for it. She opens up to me and I open up to her and it feels so good because I trust her with everything. I thank Vickie for opening up to me and not just listening to my problems but giving me advice and ideas. I thank her for loving and caring for me all the time".
Thank you!

I love you Vickie!
-Dineisha

Tony's Blog: We have it in our power to begin the world over again

Dear Friends,

When I woke up this morning my heart was full. There is something in the air. It smells like optimism, sounds like enthusiasm and feels like love. It comes in the form of an outpouring of support for our dream of an Urban Oasis for teens in the heart of the city.

That feeling has since given way to deep reflection as I realize that this is the day that we celebrate the life of another man who had a dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visionary leader and advocate for human rights for all. Unfortunately we must also reflect upon his death in 1968 at the hands of those who felt that such a vision could be silenced. It cannot. His life was ended, but his voice lives on.

I call upon the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for guidance in our quest for cultural renewal. I call on his legacy to fuel our courage to check the ignorance of racism, born from hatred which in turn is born from fear. We need the memory of MLK to incite the promise of Obama that is threatened by incivility and the disingenuousness of political discourse. A political solution without a cultural shift will be short-lived. The very work that we do at Youth Mentoring Connection is aimed directly at such a shift. Our best hope is in understanding our interconnectedness, revisiting old wisdom, understanding new ways of connecting (social networking, media outreach, etc.) and practicing compassion toward our youth and their communities. We’ll have to use all these tools and our greatest levels of creativity.

Yet, as our name implies, it comes down to developing a culture of mentoring. It comes down to our ability to proliferate the number of adults who will approach our youth in the spirit of “Sawubona” (Zulu for “I see you”), to recognize the “gifts” they were each born into this world to share. Indeed to recognize that the most wounded of them carry deep medicine that we all need, and by helping them heal we learn to heal the entire culture.

Mentoring as practiced at YMC is a community endeavor rooted in the imagination of old wisdom. The word comes from Homer’s Odyssey and involves the healing of a culture wracked by war. “Mentor” becomes guide for the young prince Telemachus and inspires him to find his voice and go on the necessary journey into adulthood. The ultimate conclusion is that the gifts of the youth mingle with that of the elder, thus driving out the forces of fear. I believe that is our battle today. If we defeat fear, we can face ourselves, face our individual and collective wounds, and build the compassionate society that has always been the promise of America.

Thomas Paine wrote, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

What an amazing thing, this human capacity to reinvent ourselves; to start anew. Let’s use the symbolism of a new year and the inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to inspire us to move our society to where all peoples can finally say:

"Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

yours in peace,

Tony

Giving Back in 2010

Did you make a New Years Resolution to do more good in 2010?  The secret to success is to dive in.  Fully commit and notice all the things that come your way to support your decision.   

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:  that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do,

or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, 

power and magic in it. " 

Goethe

If you are not sure yet what to do in 2010 to make a bigger difference, consider becoming a mentor.  Click here to mentor with Youth Mentoring Connection (volunteer button on the left)

If you are already mentoring, get a friend to volunteer to do the same.  They'll thank you for it down the road.