One of the facilitators at the workshop Dahlia Stridiron interacting with mentees and their parents.

Stacie Stoutt, Coordinator of the Mentorship Programme said the success of the programme has been the driving force of her initiating such a project.

“I have seen the struggles parents have to go through with their children and the impact the mentoring have on the attitudes of the youngsters. The problem cannot be solved within the walls of Social Development but with the help of the community,” Stoutt pointed out.

She stressed that the mentors are volunteers who will be dedicating two hours each week to forge that special bond between adult and child.

The workshop, which attracted parents and mentees as well, sought to cement the responsibilities of becoming a mentor.  

Areas covered during the one-day workshop included: developing mentorship relationship; effective strategies and techniques; an overview of mentoring and benefits of mentoring. Facilitators for the workshop were Dr. Doris Battiste, Associate Campus Administrator and Chief Student Officer responsible for the supervision and management of all areas in that division on the University of the Virgin Islands campus and Dahlia Stridiron a Guidance Counselor with the V.I. Department in St. Thomas.  

According to Stoutt, the programme, which was revamped in 2006, has seen ‘Bigs and ‘Littles’ create memories that last a lifetime.

“Our aim is to continue to promote positive growth in the key areas of the child-volunteer relationship by using available resources in the B.V.I. Research on our programme has revealed lasting impacts mentoring has had on our children’s lives,” she stressed.

Children matched with mentors in the programme are less likely to become involve with drugs and illegal activities; they get along better with family and friends and are more confident and do better in school.

The new group of ‘Bigs’ and ‘Littles’ met on Saturday for the first time and Virgin Vybes captured the meeting between Shemekah Stevens, who works at the T.B Lettsome Airport and her mentee D’andre.

Stevens heard about the programme through a public service announcement (PSA) on one of the radio stations.

What prompted her to offer her services was the love of children and the fact that she found it [the mentorship programme] to be extremely interesting.

“I think I could make a difference in the child’s life and I will be helping this young man with his homework and we will be traveling together,” Stevens added.  

D’andre is quite happy with the arrangement and according to his mother, Andrea, “He needs some more encouragement.”  

There are currently 23 mentors in the programme and on a quarterly basis, the ‘Bigs’ and ‘Littles’ do something as a family such as sailing or camping.

The Department advertises through its website, recruitment drive and PSAs to attract “Bigs” and the Coordinator said most of this year’s mentors made contact with the Department through the website www.bvibbbs.org. 

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment