What is your name?
Kildonan Youth Mentor Program

How old are you?
I began in 1998 so I have been supporting young people for 10 years!!

Who funds you?
The Victorian Department of Human Services - Placement and Support

What kind of mentoring program are you?
One to one mentoring. Each young person in the program is matched with a mentor who has been ‘hand picked’ just for them. The young person and their mentor meet fortnightly and engage in activities in the community.

Who are your young people?
Young people in our program are brave, strong, funny, sometimes wilful, and often very good at knowing what they want and need. They also volunteer to be in the program so they are young people who want to step outside their own comfort zone and try something new.  The young people in my program are usually involved in the Child Protection system and are often described as “at risk” or “high risk” due to either their past experiences or current behaviours. They may live at home, with other family, or in alternative models of care like a residential unit or foster care. The young people live in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne and are aged between 11 and 18 years.

What do you try to do for your young people? -
I know I can’t fix everything for our young people but I try to offer them the opportunity to form a positive bond with a safe and reliable adult who has their best interests in mind. Through this relationship the young people can build self esteem and self awareness, reduce their feelings of isolation from the community, and just have some fun with someone who likes them for who they are. The benefits can be boundless and long lasting.

Where do you operate?
I operate across the Northern suburbs of Melbourne.

How many young people and mentors do you support right now?
I support 20 ‘matches’ at any one time- that means 20 young people and 20 mentors. I often have several young people waiting to be matched who I try to support until we find the right person for them.

What’s so exciting about you? –
Our small program has the ability to really get to know each of our young people and help to make a match that will endure and therefore allow the young people and their mentors to get the best out of the program. I understand the needs of young people who have had very difficult backgrounds and now may be presenting with difficult behaviours themselves and I am able to offer appropriate training and support to the mentors who are spending time with these young people.

How are you different to other mentoring programs? -
The nature and needs of the young people in our program drives how we select, train, and support our mentors. Our long relationship with DHS and the nature of our funding allows us to form long lasting matches.

Do you have any partners to help you out?
I receive support from DHS, the DHS Mentor Program Network, the VYMA, and many individual protective workers and case workers from NGO’s across the North.

What have you learnt from your journey so far?
That I am still learning!!!

What has been your biggest challenge? –
Recruiting enough mentors to keep offering support to young people. Helping potential volunteers to understand they don’t need to be super human or saints to be mentors.

How have you dealt with this challenge?
Never give up!!

What’s the best thing you’ve done so far?
I have lots of little successes; every day I hear something from my mentors about how a young person tried something new or achieved something they had not been able to do before. Over ten years I have heard many of these wonderful stories which give me the energy and commitment to keep at it!

What is the one piece of advice would you give to other programs? –
You may never know the good you have done, or get many thanks: but it doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.