Mentor Training Wrap-Up
By: Josie Nelson, Marketing Intern
10/23/19
On October 17th BCYMP hosted a training for Mentors The training allowed New BCYMP Mentors to attend and complete their pre-service training in one evening. We trained 13 New BCYMP Mentors–more than the number of new Mentors matched in the entire month of September!
Current BCYMP Mentors also attended an inservice training at the end of the event. Around 7:30 p.m. we had the opportunity to learn about ACES, which stands for, Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. Nikki Eining, a BCYMP Board Member, mental health therapist and social worker who serves the Brookings community through Avera Behavioral Health, led that portion of the training.
Mentors also shared what it means to be a BCYMP Mentor and how to go about working with our mentees. Here are some big take-aways from the training:
- Being a Mentor is rewarding and can be simple.
- BCYMP is one-on-one and community based.
- Relationships are built one at a time! The most important thing about mentoring is the supporting and encouraging relationship Mentoring Pairs build.
- A Mentor is a friend, not a counselor, bank or babysitter.
- The Mentee can have just as big an impact on you as you do them.
We would like to give our gratitude to Domino’s for donating 20 pizzas to help with our event. Without donations our organization would not be able to run as successfully as it does! Thank you!
We also want to give a big thanks to GracePoint Wesleyan Church for allowing us to use their beautiful facility. Again, thank you to those who help BCYMP create a better community.
We also appreciate Nikki for expanding her knowledge with us to open our eyes to different viewpoints on how trauma impacts the developing brain. An exercise she had us do was stand on our tippy toes and lean over a little bit. Words to describe this experience from our Mentors were, uncertain, wobbly, hard and most of all scared. She explained that this is how some children in our area, and all over the world feel when they are experiencing or have had trauma.
Through the ACES training we had around 50 people learn more about childhood studies. This is helpful for BCYMP Mentors because we often work with children that have suffered through some sort of trauma. When Nikki asked us an example of an impact that a Mentor has helped in an area that the mentee may need, a Mentor gave an example of how she got her mentee a planner and taught her how to use it and her grades got better.
Our Mentors really make a difference in our
Congratulations to the 13 new Mentors on the completion of your training. Thank you for wanting to be a part of BCYMP. You are taking one step forward to making a difference in your community. #BCYMPBeOne