11/29/2012

Friends for Youth in Australia

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Sarah Kremer's keynote
--> The Australian Youth Mentoring Network 2012 Conference, Innovation. Evidence. Network, was held on 14 – 15 November at the Radisson Resort Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Friends for Youth’s Mentoring Institute Director Sarah Kremer was honored to be a keynote speaker who, along with Dr. Reneé Spencer, shared the latest in U.S. research and practices with 175 attendees from across Australia and New Zealand. Sarah’s keynote presentation, Ten Practices that Help Achieve a Successful Mentoring Program, highlighted Friends for Youth’s expertise in helping agencies ensure high-quality mentoring services and linked them to the AYMN’s new Benchmarks, standards for all mentoring programs. Recommended practices in her talk included information about SAFE (ScreeningApplicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Molestation in Mentoringand Youth-Serving Organizations, their research-based resource that is considered the standard on screening volunteers. Additionally, Sarah’s workshop, Infusing Creativity into Mentoring Relationships and Programs, was attended by over 60 conference participants.
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Reneé Spencer's keynote
In addition to Dr. Reneé Spencer from Boston University, whose keynote Realising the Promise of Youth Mentoring featured her research on mentoring relationships, other speakers at the conference included 

 
Arthur Cora  
     Arthur Cora, an indigenous man whose family are traditional owners from the Yugambeh region in South East Queensland, kicking off the conference with a Welcome to Country Ceremony

Sarah speaking with Minister Garrett


     The Honorable Minister Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education and Minister for Early Childhood and Youth, who delivered opening remarks about the importance of mentoring and education to Australian youth

Dr. Kristy Muir



Dr. Kristy Muir, Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Senior Research Fellow with the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who discussed findings from the most recent research on youth in Australia

Stuart Reid


      Stuart Reid, Director of Policy and Planning: Children Youth & Families Department of Communities in the Western Australia Government, sharing about the Western Australia Mentoring Partnership: From “Us and Them” to “We” and “Us”



Karni Liddell

Karni Liddell, one of Australia’s most successful and well-respected Paralympic swimmers, who shared an inspiring story of how she went from a child with a degenerative muscle wasting disease to medal winner at the Sydney Paralympic Games and captain of the Australian team



Overall, conference attendees’ knowledge of youth mentoring practices was impressively high and information from most of the workshops indicated a solid understanding of youth mentoring principles. Thirteen participants won a Friends for Youth item – a resource, t-shirt, or bag – by sharing with Sarah one of the Australian Benchmarks with a concept illustrated in the keynote presentation and details about how their program addresses both. "It was an immense honor to be invited to speak at the AYMN conference and I was deeply impressed by the collective wisdom in the room and with the level of commitment to providing high-quality mentoring to Australia's youth, many of whom are facing the same issues young people face in our own country," Sarah says.


Lamingtons, a national treat
The Australian YouthMentoring Network (AYMN) is Australia’s lead body for youth mentoring and is a national hub for youth mentoring research, tools, and resources. The AYMN aims to work with interested youth mentoring organizations and practitioners to foster the growth and development of high quality mentoring programs for young people in Australia by providing a national base of collaboration, support, guidance and expertise. The AYMN is non-profit organization and supports over 260 mentoring organizations of which 30,000 young mentees are mentored.  Thank you again, AYMN, and the former EO, Kathleen Vella, for having us!

11/26/2012

Thank you Cisco employees!

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Friends for Youth would like to acknowledge a group of Cisco employees who recently spent a morning learning about and supporting mentoring. Led by Friends for Youth Board Member and Cisco employee Rama Naageswaran, the team applied their corporate strategy skills to a Friendship Seminar and Tile Making Workshop.

This group of volunteers brought a fun and fantastic vibe to the workshop, and they were a very creative bunch. Thank you to all who participated, and we look forward to connecting with you further!


11/20/2012

Thank You, Dropbox!

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Friends for Youth wants to send a warm “thank you” to the employees of Dropbox who took time out of their busy schedules to learn about the positive impact of mentoring. There were about a dozen attendees who listened to Jonathan gave a short presentation on Friends for Youth facts and his personal experience with mentoring.
We also wanted to send an extra special “thank you” to Pete Belknap who organized the event at the Dropbox headquarters in San Francisco. Pete is a current mentor with Friends for Youth and employee at Dropbox who hopes to spread the positive message of mentoring to his community. You go, Pete!

11/15/2012

Mentor Story Project: Board Member Lisa

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This post is part of a series called the Mentor Story Project. Each week a new Friends for Youth champion will be featured with his or her mentoring story. Some stories are about mentoring with Friends for Youth, others are about informal mentoring experiences.

 
Your Name: Lisa  

Years with Friends for Youth: 2+ years 

Name of your Mentee:
Cindy 

Years you’ve been friends:
2+ years 

Where you met: FFY 

Age difference:
26 years 

What you like to do together:
Hang out (visit the city roaming the streets, attending an event, ... we don’t have one thing but have a great time every time we get together) 

Something you won’t forget:
The very first time when she proactively reached out to me telling me she looked forward to catching up with me.  

Most important thing you’ve learned: Being present 

11/12/2012

“You Are What You Eat”

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Do you know how to read a food label?

Last Thursday three Friendships got to practice their food label reading skills as they learned about nutrition and healthy eating.

Friendships shared their knowledge and showed their competitive sides as they played the “Name That Food” game, a game about the Food Groups. Each Friendship had a page that showed all the food groups. They then had to list as many foods as they could think of for each group.

Food labels can be tricky and intimidating, but Friendships had no problem cracking the code and easily identified between the good and the bad. The night came to a close with a group leading a stretching exercise and Friendships announcing what they would do to feel healthy every day.

11/08/2012

Mentor Story Project: Board Member Jacquelyn

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This post is part of a series called the Mentor Story Project. Each week a new Friends for Youth champion will be featured with his or her mentoring story. Some stories are about mentoring with Friends for Youth, others are about informal mentoring experiences.


Who Did You Mentor?
My Name
: Jacquelyn

Years with Friends for Youth: 5+

Name of my Mentee: Kelia

Years we’ve been friends: 5+

Where we met each other: At Kelia’s home

Age difference: 18 years

What we like to do together: Movies, games, crafts, and attending shows/events.

Something we won’t forget: Her first time ice skating, her first dance lesson, going to the circus, and playing laser tag!

Most important thing I’ve learned: I got to coordinate with her teachers each year and understand how she was doing in school and any ways in which I could be a positive force in her academics. I learned that there are many ways you can positively influence someone's interest in learning other than just with tutoring and home work!

“The best thing about my mentoring experience was getting to share so many fun times with Kelia. I got to expose her to many new things that she otherwise would probably never have encountered and I got to see her excitement in experiencing things for the first time. It was very rewarding when others began to see positive changes in her as a result of having a consistent, positive relationship me.”

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