Even though National Mentoring Month is coming to an end, there is still a need for mentoring more than ever. MENTOR: The National Mentoring Alliance reports 44% of Americans who do not already mentor would consider mentoring and when employers encourage mentoring, 73% of employees report strong career satisfaction.
This past month, BCYMP’s Executive Director, Darla Bie,l visited Kool Beans on Main avenue every Monday morning for “ Coffee on Us!” to answer community members’ questions and provide a free cup of coffee. Other non-profit leaders from Brookings, potential mentors, board members, and other community members visited with Darla asking about why mentoring is important and how they can help. It seemed like a perfect way to reach mentors and we hope to continue “Coffee on Us!” even after January.
Besides “Coffee on Us!”, this month BCYMP also highlighted its monthly donor program, the “Mentoring Support Squad.” In 2020, the first 20 who pledge to donate $10 or more each month to BCYMP will be thanked with a trip certificate from Brookings Home Team, Powered by Century 21, Krogman & Co. Donors can choose between a 3-day & 2-nights stay at over 500 locations or a trip to Las Vegas. Some restrictions and fees apply. Please visit https://bcymentoring.org/donate/ to join today and to claim your thank you trip. Check out our recent blog “Monthly Mentor Support Squad” for more details.
The BCYMP Mentors and Mentees were also able to join in the fun by helping cheer on the SDSU Women’s basketball team against NDSU! SDSU was kind enough to invite our matches to the home game against NDSU on January 24. Brookings Home Team provided free tickets for BCYMP Mentoring Pairs and SDSU provided discounted tickets to friends and mentoring family members. MetaBank donated t-shirts for all BCYMP matches and staff to wear to the game, and SCSA Diagnostics donated a free pop and popcorn for each mentoring pair. After the Women’s team won, all the Mentors, Mentees, BCYMP staff, board members, and other guests joined together for a group photo on the court.
Mentoring pairs also enjoyed free bowling on Sunday, January 26 at Prairie Lanes. We had 77 bowlers show that evening for a night full of fun and laughter. This event was sponsored by a grant from Sioux Valley Energy.
In order to spread the news about National Mentoring Month, our Executive Director, Darla Biel, also spoke at 1Million Cups, Brookings Rotary Club, Prairie Skies Family Dentistry, and a Leadership Brookings event in January. She also attended Brookings Day at the Capitol, and will be back in Pierre on Feb. 19 for Non-Profits Day.
Finally, the BCYMP Board had a retreat to close out January, National Mentoring Month. At the retreat, they learned more about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and how mentoring can build protective factors and increase the resiliency of young people.
The BCYMP Board Members are as follows:
Jen Christianson
Debre Eilers
Amy Button
Dave Hopewell
Isaiah Crevier
Ritu Hooda
Teree Nesvold
Shane Andersen
Mary Kidwiler
Landon Fischbach
Nikki Eining
Rea McKeown
Thank you to all the awesome donors, board members, community supporters, Mentors, and Mentees that made National Mentoring Month such a success. We are so glad to have over 120 mentoring pairs develop strong mentoring relationships every week. Mentoring benefits not only the Mentee but the Mentor as well. We train our Mentors the Developmental Relationship Framework which has five main components.
- Express Care
- Challenge Growth
- Provide Support
- Share Power
- Expand Possibilities
2 out of 3 Americans believe mentoring is highly important for a youth’s development but 1 in 3 youth in America will grow up without a mentor according to MENTOR: the National Mentoring Alliance. By consistently showing up every week Mentors express to Mentees how important they are to the Mentor. Mentors help Mentees grow when establishing rules and holding each other accountable to uphold the rules through the mentoring relationship. Mentoring pairs collaborate on projects, share similar interests, and inspire one another to be a better person. We hope you the reader feels inspired to apply today at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BCYMPMentorApp to become a Mentor for one of the 27 boys and 21 girls waiting. If you cannot mentor, but are willing to donate another way please click here to donate. There is still time left to sign up for the Monthly Mentor Support Squad or level up your current monthly donation commitments. The first 20 to do so will receive a trip certificate as a thank you!
Thank you!