Mentoring

January is Mentor Month! Mentoring can involve all manner of relationships; business help, career coaching, friendly assurance. But perhaps the most important mentoring relationship is that involving an adult sharing time with a kid who has no one to listen to her to or who's family situation leaves little opportunity for him just to be a kid.
Mentor, an organization committed to "expanding quality mentoring, with the hope that with the guidance of an adult mentor, each child can discover how to unlock and achieve his or her potential," says that over 17 million young people in the US want or need mentoring. Many kids from low income families don't have the support that they should be getting or have unstable family situations. This can lead to poor school attendance, low grades, high dropout rate and greater risk for getting involved in all those other negative things that happen when nobody believes in you. Mentoring has proven benefits for everyone involved; the kids' GPAs rise, attendance and self esteem improves, you make a friend.
What do you have to do as a mentor? What do you have to do to change a life like this? Big Brother/Big Sister, one of the largest and oldest mentor matching organizations in the US says that really all these kids need is someone to hang out with. They suggest taking your ment-ee along to do what you normally do. Going to the Met, volunteering, playing basketball, watching a movie, whatever, these kids will appreciate anything you do together, and doing something even that simple can make a world of difference. Even though I grew up in a nice urban neighborhood with a relatively stable family, this sounds about right, when I was 14 all I wanted was someone to pay attention to me.
Mentor will help you find an organization in your area that can match you up with a ment-ee.

Did you ever have a mentor? Have you ever mentored? What kind of impact did your relationship have on your life?