Back.
January is National Mentoring month and the Governor's
Prevention Partnership is looking for to create lasting relationships
with adults and youth to develop life skills and prevent substance abuse.
And here with me right now, Roman Harmon is talking about more about the program.
You are the vice president of the program, very involved. We're
glad that you could come in to the program today, Erica. It's good to be
this morning. Talk
about how critical, how important this program is
to some people in our.
Yes. So I'll just start off January as National Mentoring month.
And so I just wanna say happy mentoring month to, to everyone.
And so the focus really is to create more lasting relationships with young
people to make sure they have more adults that are in their lives,
providing some positive uh support to them.
Um National
Mentoring Month has been going on for many years now.
And so this is a time where we really want to make a big push to get more
volunteers in the lives of young people and get
them connected with young people all across our state.
As the vice president and president of the program you're
very involved and you've been a mentor for many years,
talk a little bit more about what that experience has been.
I have been a mentor and I can say it's been extremely rewarding.
I can reflect on
um my mentees who are now adults and successful adults.
They've got great jobs and doing a lot of good things.
But I, what I remember and take away from the experience most. It was not just what
uh the mentee was benefiting from,
but what it was doing for me and the opportunity to get back,
um the opportunity to make, to,
to know that I was making a difference in our community, right?
You hear so often when you give, you actually get, you get,
you get really actually the one that's receiving.
Certainly, certainly. And
I,
I think some of the benefits for mentors for those adults
who make the decision to step up to support young people.
Um It's about um
you know, it, it raises their self esteem, it gives them the opportunity to
uh make a difference in the world and then they can go back and reflect.
And they also remember that adult that was in their
life that helped them to get where they are today.
So I always encourage adults to think about,
think about that person who was in your life.
You're at this particular station in life.
Now, if it wasn't for them, would you be there? Right. And so
when we put ourselves in those shoes and begin to think about that,
we can, we can certainly support young people to get where they want to in life.
What would you say to somebody who might be watching right now?
And is thinking about it, it's something that they would like to do, but they're,
may be worried that they don't have enough time for the commitment.
What would you say to them right now?
So it's uh typically mentoring is a year long commitment.
It's one hour a week and there are many different ways to mentor.
Um We know that um
uh there's the one on one mentoring where,
where you can be face to face with the mentee in a community based mentoring program
such as the Urban Community Alliance in New Haven or Big Brothers,
Big Sisters right here in Hartford,
or there are school based mentoring programs where uh
the adult has the opportunity to lead work,
go into the school, spend time with a young person for an hour.
And then now what we've seen since the pandemic,
we've seen an uptick in virtual mentoring
uh where where adults are connecting with young people online.
And so long as they're attached to a local program where they can get support,
they can get training
and that's what the Governor's prevention partnerships helps to do.
So we support local programs on the ground.
We also uh ensure that uh the adults, the mentors who are, are,
are working with young people,
are trained and supported all throughout the match relationship.
Now, is it just a one year commitment as
a one year relationship or do you,
the hope is that it continues on minimum one year commitment.
But
we really look for longer than that. And
mentors
themselves have mentored uh all the way from first grade, all the way to graduation.
And then sometimes we're seeing where mentors
are following their young people through college.
So a lot of good success stories out there and what's the best way for anybody,
an individual or even an organization to get involved?
So, as an organization, maybe an employer, that's a great way to sort of lead.
Absolutely.
And many, a
lot of employers offer work leads time.
And so that's something our organization can help employers to be
able to develop if they're interested in having their employees volunteer,
create more volunteer opportunities to mentor
young people within their communities.
We can, we can help employers set up that, that whole type of program.
Um In addition to that, we have a website where mentors can go,
potential volunteers can go and sign up
uh at bit dot Lee mentor ct.
Uh And in that website,
uh they can register to become a mentor, but in addition to that,
they can find a local program in their community
and talk a bit about what, how the matching process works,
how you get matched up with your per specific mentor.
So, so typically the adult is uh the mentor, the volunteer,
it's connected with the local program.
That program coordinator finds out what the interests are of the young person.
Where are their similarities?
They also talk to the family, what does the young person do?
They want to become an engineer?
Um Are they looking into going into nursing and then they
talk to the mentor and find out what their interests are.
And so they try to match up that way um in many regards,
really important program and again,
just remind folks the best way to get connected, the best website.
So the Governor's Prevention partnership
bit
dot Lee
CT. Ok. Or you can go to our website G PC
tct.org. Yes. Become a mentor today.
All right, Roland, thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having us.
I appreciate your time.