Mentoring gives you the opportunity to meet people who can offer you guidance, support and encouragement in any part of your life.
The Victorian Government supports mentoring in lots of different ways as part of the larger goal to improve things for all young Victorians.
Youth Mentoring Week 2011
On 24 October 2011 young people and their mentors came together to celebrate the launch of Youth Mentoring Week (new window), which runs from 23-29 October 2011. The Mentor of the Year Award was awarded to Jeanne Winters, whose mentee, Andie Dunn, was there to support her in receiving her award.
Jeanne volunteered to mentor 19-year-old Andie for 120 hours to get her licence as part of the L2P driving instruction program run by the City of Geelong. When Andie became homeless and suffered a mental illness, Jeanne remained committed to helping Andie and was a constant source of support and guidance through her difficult times.
If you are currently a mentor or a mentee get out and celebrate youth mentoring week!
How does mentoring work?
Young people all face changes and challenges. Having a mentor is a valuable way of making a connection with your community, or simply a way to learn more about yourself.
Mentoring opportunities are offered in lots of different ways by lots of different organisations, but all mentoring programs have a few things in common, like:
- Helping you to understand and reach your potential
- Being a voluntary - not compulsory - arrangement between yourself and your mentor
- Providing a caring and supportive environment
- Being safe for everyone involved - both you and your mentor
Being in a mentorship is not the same as visiting a counsellor. It's also not the same as having a coach. Mentoring can be as simple as just hanging out, or it could be about establishing your own goals - big or small - and helping you to achieve them.
Read the mentoring comic
The comic "What is This Mentoring Thing?" tells the story of one person's journey though a mentoring program. You can read it online by clicking the image on this page or the link below. You can also download a .pdf version to read offline or print out to read later.
The benefits of mentoring
Mentoring programs are a way to help you to achieve your goals and improve your connection to family, friends, school and your community. They also help you to get involved in new opportunities that can lead to long-term positive outcomes.
Benefits to young people being mentored can include:
- Better education outcomes through improved school attendance
- Increased employment opportunities
- An increase in confidence, self-esteem, self-worth and aspirations
- Improved social and interpersonal skills
- Better relationships with parents and other family members
- A greater feeling of connection and belonging
- A reduced chance of getting into dodgy behaviour (violence, risk-taking, substance abuse, etc.)
Benefits to mentors can include:
- An improved sense of achievement and satisfaction by providing opportunities that have a positive influence on a someone's life
- Insight into the lives of young people
- An opportunities to build new positive relationships meet new people
- Developing new skills
How to find (or become) a mentor
If you're interested in getting into a mentoring project so that you can find a mentor, or if you're interested in helping out by becoming a mentor, check out The Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance (new window). You can search based on where you live or what kind of organisation you want to be involved with.
Links
Check out the links below for more information about mentoring in Victoria:
Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance
Supporting and co-ordinating over 200 youth mentoring programs in Victoria. Find a mentoring program near you with their simple "Find a program" listing.
Office for Youth - Mentoring
Information about Victorian Government programs and funding that support youth mentoring programs in Victoria.
