Mentors for children in care
We are so grateful for the creative team behind this clip:
Chas Bayfield: concept & script writer (https://www.chasbayfield.com/)
Shiloh Longbottom: character illustration (https://www.instagram.com/shiloh_longbottom/?hl=en)
Cam Heit (Production Farm): music & voice-over (https://www.productionfarm.studio/)
Tom Smith (Commmotion): design & animation (https://commmotion.co/)
So, what's the program about?
Fostering Hope’s Mentoring Program seeks to match adults with young people between 7 and 12 years old in care. Mentors are people who choose to spend time with a young person, invest in them, and be an extra support in their life. For children growing up in care, they also are someone who isn’t paid to look after them!
For many of us, imagining a childhood as a time of adversity, family disruption, of being without a family or even living in an institution, is impossible. Many of us haven’t thought about what this means, what it means for the ordinary rites of passage to be experienced without at least one, if not a family, of caring adults supporting you. Significant milestones such as driving lessons, part time jobs, navigating subject choices, relationships, and health, would all be difficult without a caring adult to help you through.
Research shows us that the outcomes for children entering adulthood from out of home care are poorer than their peers in the community across every indicator.
This is for a range of reasons including,
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the trauma/abuse they enter care with that already increases their vulnerability,
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placement instability,
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an increasing number of children entering care and not enough carers, and
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a system that isn’t resourced enough to support them and their carers.
Mentoring is powerful for people of all ages, experience and research shows that mentoring has incredible potential to help people grow and reach their full potential. This same experience and research show that mentoring is most effective when it is intentional and delivered by well-trained, well-supported mentors. At Fostering Hope we believe mentoring has the potential to significantly impact the lives of kids in care for the better. We combine the Community Mentoring Tasmania material with our own material as we train and support our mentors.
Currently, our Mentoring Program is only operating in Tasmania, if you are keen to see Fostering Hope Mentoring happening in your area (outside of Tasmania) we'd love to hear from you to talk about how we might be able to partner together.
What is mentoring?
Some people say mentoring is:
"Natural relational process where experiences and values are passed from one generation to another"
"Accountability in leadership and empowering others" (Stanley PD & Clinton JR Connecting)
"Mentoring is a process, not a program. It is a journey that requires great patience, persistence and perseverance" (Stoddard DA The Heart of Mentoring)
"A relational experience in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources" (MOPS International)
In essence, at Fostering Hope we believe that mentoring is a relationship that empowers, it is being a friend with purpose.
The training model we use equips mentors to be someone who:
Can readily see potential in a person
Can tolerate mistakes, brashness and abrasiveness in a person in order to see potential develop
Is flexible, adapting as the mentee's needs change
Is patient, recognising that it takes time and experience for a person to develop
Has vision and ability to see down the road, and suggests the next steps that a person needs for development
Is trauma informed in their mentoring practice.
Fostering Hope is working with Olive Road Tasmania, Community Mentoring Tasmania, Future2 Foundation, and the COACH Network to deliver this mentoring program. We are seeking volunteer mentors throughout Tasmania and will provide training, matching and ongoing support.
Your Next Steps...
If you think this might be something you can do, or if you would like to find out more please Get in touch with Ellie and our Mentoring Team, or you can Apply to become a mentor and we'll be in touch with you soon.
We hold regular information sessions about mentoring and becoming a mentor, you're invited to Come along to find out more.
If you care for a child in care, you can Ask for a mentor.