January is National Mentoring Month! According to National Day Calendar, all throughout January we “focus on how we can all work together to increase the number of mentors to make sure young people in our communities have dependable people to look up to and follow in their footsteps.”
The mentors who help the kids in our Life Launch program are truly unmatched. We currently have several teens and young adults, ages 14-21, who take part in Life Launch, which is an extensive program that involves working one-on-one with foster youth and incorporates life skills, career exploration, job shadowing, college visits and mentoring. One of the most important pieces of Life Launch is matching every single youth with a mentor. Mentors help guide our youth as they explore, prepare and transition from foster care to young adult life.
“Being Jason’s mentor has been an incredible experience for me,” says Nate, mentor to an Angels’ Arms youth. “The opportunity to have fun with someone, build a friendship with them, and pour into their life in a positive way is a huge blessing. I highly recommend it! Our lives are so much more meaningful and rich when we invest in others. I believe mentoring not only provides an opportunity to make an impact in someone else’s life – it provides an opportunity to impact your life as well.”
Not only do the mentors prepare them for life, but they also help our youth start to trust others again and form meaningful relationships.
“Nate has been more like family to me than just a mentor,” says Jason, the Angels’ Arms youth who was matched up with Nate. “He’s always positive and that makes being around him all the more enjoyable. He’s so nice and checks in with me a lot. I appreciate things like how we always laugh when we’re together and how he’s super sincere about who he is. I am grateful he’s my mentor and my friend.”
For more information about what it takes to be a mentor to one of our youth, email cat@angelsarms.org or visit the Life Launch page on our website.