mentor – Empowered Flower Girl

Mentors Urgently Needed: You can make a life-changing difference for youth

Posted on December 28, 2022 by empoweredflowergirl

January is National Mentoring Month

According to MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, 1 in 3 young people will grow up without having a mentor. This means that they may face growing and developing without positive resources and reinforcement outside of the home.

Life-changing impact

Mentoring has the potential to profoundly transform the lives of young people in our communities. By providing guidance and support, mentors are able to open up new opportunities and broaden horizons for their mentees. However, despite this potential, mentors are still urgently needed in many areas across the country.

Learn why mentorship is so important and how you can help make a difference in the lives of young people today.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a process whereby an experienced individual provides guidance, support and advice to a less experienced person. The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee develop their skills, knowledge and confidence so that they can reach their full potential.

Mentors can come from any walk of life and don’t necessarily have to be in the same field as their mentee. What’s important is that they have experience and knowledge that the mentee can benefit from. A mentor relationship is built on trust and mutual respect, and should be entered into willingly by both parties.

Mentoring can take many different forms, but typically involves meeting on a regular basis (either in person or virtually) to chat, offer advice and support, and answer any questions the mentee might have. The frequency and length of meetings will vary depending on the needs of the individual involved.

If you’re interested in becoming a mentor, there are many organizations that can connect you with someone who would benefit from your time and expertise. Alternatively, you may know someone in your personal or professional life who could benefit from having a mentor – if so, why not reach out and see if they’d be interested in starting a mentoring relationship with you?

Long-lasting impact

A mentor can provide guidance, support and advice that can help a young person make good choices and achieve their goals. Mentoring is an important part of helping young people grow and develop into successful adults by:

Raising aspirations and confidence
Developing new skills
Overcoming adversity and setbacks
Achieving potential

Mentors can play a vital role in supporting young people through difficult times and helping them to progress towards their goals.

Read: How Mentorship Supports Young People in Difficult Times

Become a mentor today!

It takes a special person to be a mentor. One who can give of their time, energy and resources to help another individual grow and develop into their best self. If you have the passion and commitment to make a difference in the life of a young person, then becoming a mentor may be the perfect opportunity for you. You can do it!

Still a little unsure? Here are a few tips on how to get started with mentoring:

Determine what type of mentoring you would like to do. There are many different types of mentoring programs available, so it is important to decide which one is right for you. Do you want to work with children, teens or young adults? Would you prefer one-on-one mentoring or group mentoring?
Consider your skills and experience. Do you have expertise in a particular field that could benefit your mentee? Are you good at listening and providing support? Think about what assets you can bring to the table as a mentor.
Complete any necessary training or certification. Some mentoring programs may require you to complete specific training before becoming a mentor. Others may provide training as part of the program itself.
Sign up to receive Empowered Flower Girl’s FREE Mentoring Guide to learn how you can fit mentoring into your busy schedule.

Helping Kids Manage Their Unique Pressures Starts by Being a Healthy Role Model

Posted on April 9, 2021April 12, 2021 by empoweredflowergirl

By Amanda Henderson

Being a child isn’t always easy. While it’s true that there are few decisions to make in the early years, children learn to make decisions later on by watching their parents. If you are a positive role model, you will empower your kids to be healthy and independent adults.

The Pressures of Today

Kids today are under more pressure than ever. Our youth — especially teenage girls — deal with issues that we never did. Social media is an especially difficult hurdle for young girls to handle, and it unfairly puts ridiculous expectations on how they should look, act, and befriend.

Be EmPOWERed is a great book to read as a parent and to share with your daughter. It will walk you through Rasheda’s heart-wrenching journey through her victory of how she learned how to embrace all of the beautiful things that made her different.

It is not just girls that have to live up to an unrealistic standard either. Once young people enter college — and even before — they may experience what the Child Mind Institute calls “duck syndrome.” This is essentially a way to describe the turmoils that people are dealing with individually without letting the world see. It references how waterfowl seemed to glide without obstacles on the water while, under the surface, they must kick violently to stay afloat.

How You Can Encourage a Healthy Reality

As a parent, teacher, camp counselor, or other type of caretaker, you can model behaviors that will serve as a life-long example for the children in your life. Doing things, such as refusing to live up to social media standards and embracing your own reality will go a long way toward encouraging kids to do the same.

The online world is not the only place that you can model a healthy adult life. In the real world, talk to your children early about the future. Let them know that there is nothing stopping them from pursuing the life they desire. To do this, however, you need to live your own reality and take your own advice. If you are stuck in a go-nowhere job, look inside for the courage to go back to school.

Let’s say that you wanted to be a software systems architect in high school but chose an easier path. You can take an online computer science course now and earn a degree so that you can master your professional earning capacity. Plus, you’ll be following your dreams, and your children will see that you face your fears and overcome them.

Other ways to encourage healthy habits in children include:

● Get plenty of sleep. Teenagers are especially prone to forgoing bedtime so that they can finish homework or stay up late to chat with their friends. While both academics and socializing are crucial to their development, teach them that their health is also important by creating an environment that encourages everyone to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

● Don’t bow to peer pressure. We tend to think peer pressure is something that only affects those under 18. This is absolutely not true, and adults are often faced with decisions to make based on behaviors by their friends and acquaintances. Remember, you don’t have to go out every weekend even if your divorced friends are. By prioritizing what’s important to you and not bowing to everyone else’s whims, you show your child that it’s okay to be independent and follow their heart instead of the crowd.

Obviously, this is not a full guide on how to be a role model for your children. But living your own reality and encouraging healthy habits are a great start. Remember, everything you do now will be embedded in your children’s brains and will become the map for their own adult life. Children will do as you do, not as you say, so make the most of your behaviors. All eyes are on you.

About the author

Amanda enjoys writing in her freetime, and recently decided to create safechildren.info