Below is some information about what mentoring is and what it isn't and a great story that gives you a little more insight into the difference mentoring can make. If after you read this information and you think you may be able to be trained as a mentor, please contact me Nadine@hillsbc.org.nz and once we have a small group of prospective mentors, we can set-up some mentor training days. Blessings on you all for being such a caring community already.

A little more about mentoring (from the Fresh Perspective Website) :

Fresh Perspective is often asked, if mentoring is not counseling and it is not social work, then how does a Fresh Perspective mentor Help…..

Family mentors are volunteers who work under supervision out of various Churches throughout New Zealand (of which HBC is one).

All mentors have completed an application process, including providing references, police checks and 16 hours of training. Mentoring is about being a supportive friend to a parent or caregiver who has asked for help. It is about taking time to listen, to encourage, to help a family identify solutions or ways through difficulties, and to walk with them for a while.

It is about intentionally supporting a person while they grapple with some of life’s challenges, or learn new skills: assisting them to realise their desires for themselves by helping them put goals into manageable steps that will build an experience of small accumulative successes.

This is Jane’s story and we hope it will give you a little more of an idea of how Fresh Perspective is experienced by families in need:

Jane (name changed) : “My contact with Fresh Perspective was a result of my complete desperation. My daughter had a health issue that was severely impacting on her emotional wellbeing and although support for her was quickly able to be instigated, once identified as necessary, support for those left in her wake was not. Two and half years of Cyclone Daughter had left our family, self esteem and belief in my ability to mother, in rubble.

“Fresh perspective gave me a mentor that was immediately my caregiver. My mentor shared with me my ups and downs with my daughter for the next one and a half years. I couldn’t share these feelings or experiences with anyone else, husband, family or friends, because this would impact negatively on their feelings for my daughter and she was having enough trouble.

“With my mentor I had the complete and utter freedom of being able to talk about anything and everything. It was safe and this meant release, this was huge. I no longer needed to keep all this completely bottled up inside; she enabled me to carry a lighter weight. I didn’t feel as if I was being a traitor to my daughter talking about her.

“My mentor supported me with her insight and humour, gained from her own life experiences, her love, completely unconditional, and with a little advice, not much of this. “She always had tissues in her hand bag, I invariably cried over our cups of tea or coffee. She always had a positive out look on the dramas of the time and reinforced me as a good mum, this took some convincing initially.

“Her support gave me the strength to continue supporting my husband and second child, to meet their needs through all this. She spent time with our family while leading my daughter through a school project. “My mentor saw the changes that growing up and receiving professional counselling had on my daughter and in this reinforced my thoughts that all was actually improving and not just my wishing it so. “At the end of each meeting she would leave me feeling positive with something like “ your daughter is a beautiful, loving, caring girl and she will come through this and so will you.” She would give me a huge hug (so craved for) and she would bless me. I would have some peace for some time after.”