What is your name?
Let me introduce myself - My name is iTrack; I’m very pleased to me you!

How old are you?
I was born in Queensland in 2003 and was piloted three times with increasing success before being rolled out more widely in 2006 as part of The Smith Family’s suite of programs.  I had my Victorian debut in 2007.

Who funds you?
Seed funding was provided by the Westpac Foundation and later pilots were funded by American Express.

What kind of mentoring program are you?
I am a one-to-one online mentoring program, and I focus on the school to work transition. 

Who are your young people
My young people are senior secondary school students, generally aged between 15-18 years old. My focus is around disadvantaged communities The Smith Family, already has an established presence and relationships.

What do you try to do for your young people?
My aim is to provide students with opportunities to develop appropriate relationships with supportive adults other than a teacher or parent, and to provide information to students about workplace, study and career opportunities to enhance their school to work / further study transition.

Where do you operate?
I operate in communities around Australia which are determined to be of low socio-economic status and where The Smith Family already has an existing presence and is operating its Learning for Life suite of programs.  In Victoria, I’ve spent time in Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Craigieburn, Bendigo, Shepparton, Morewell, Dandenong, Hoppers Crossing, Braybrook and Corio Bay.

How many young people and mentors do you support right now? -  Right now I look after 92 students and 92 mentors (almost double what I was last year - I just keep getting bigger!)

What’s so exciting about you?
I consider myself VERY exciting!  I’m unique- no-one is quite like me – I really haven’t met another program that looks like me in Victoria so I feel a little bit special about that!

How are you different to other mentoring programs?
Well, the main thing that is different about me is that I am an online program.  Most mentoring programs (including my mate at The Smith Family, the Tertiary Mentoring Program,) are centred around face to face mentoring.  Where I differ is that I take place online, on a weekly basis through The Smith Family’s IGNITE! web site chat rooms.   My students attend specially allocated classes in which they have the opportunity to ‘chat’ electronically with mentors, or leave messages on a second site, IBM’s MentorPlace.

Do you have any partners to help you out? How do they help?
I have lots of friends and supporters- I feel really lucky!  As mentioned, I was helped out in the early stages by The Westpac Foundation and also IBM has played a big role in my success-not only by allowing use of its ‘MentorPlace’ website but also with providing mentors and venues for training.  I have lots of other corporate friends (I won’t list them all in case I leave someone out!)- they are where  I source my mentors from, and they also help by providing venues for the three face-to-face gatherings I hold during the course of my mentoring year.

What have you learnt from your journey so far?
I have learnt so much since I started here in Victoria last year!  I’ve learnt the importance of voluntary participation and that mentoring doesn’t really work if the mentees (or ‘students’ as we refer to them) aren’t keen, voluntary participants.  I’ve also learnt the importance of excellent mentor support and that, whatever comes up along the way, as long as mentors feel they are well supported and appreciated, they are generally happy to go with the flow!   Another thing I’ve learnt is that there are hundreds of wonderful people out there who are really eager to participate in some form of community service or volunteer work, simply out of a desire to ‘give something back’ to the broader community. 

What has been your biggest challenge?
I think my biggest challenge has been that I keep getting bigger!  That’s a great thing because it means I am working and that schools, teachers and mentors really like me, but it can present challenges when considering how to best resource what I am doing.

How have you dealt with this challenge?
Here at The Smith Family, we are incredibly lucky to have a wonderful base of volunteer support – without them I probably wouldn’t exist!  Volunteers help with a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ work that I create – I really couldn’t do it without them!

What’s the best thing you’ve done so far?
I think the best thing I’ve done is bring together people from very different backgrounds and open their eyes to the ‘other side of the fence.’  Mentors from corporate backgrounds have gained insight into the lives of students who are from different geographic locations to them and whose family/financial/social background is potentially very different from their own.  Students have grown in confidence, self esteem, knowledge and skills, simply by having a supportive adult available to chat with them every week for 6 months.  The relationships I’ve helped develop, and the unexpected results that have come about, are I think the best part of what I’ve done so far.