The importance of mentoring
- By Vanessa Merhib
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- 17 Jan, 2017
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Did you know that January is National Mentoring Month across the United States?
At the Boys & Girls
Club, at the heart of what we do is mentor youth and create a safe, positive
place with supportive adult role models to create hope and opportunity for
youth. At the Club, a supportive adult relationship is framed in many
ways, through many programs that we have at the Club. It may be informal
in the day to day operations of Club with a teacher playing a game of dodge
ball with you, getting you a band aid when you are hurt or helping you with
your math homework when it seems impossible. It can also mean youth
working with a teacher in our small group programs that focus on a variety of
topics, including self-esteem, making healthy life choices: mind, body and soul
or learning to persevere and learning in STEM programs. Lastly, it
could mean participating in our one-on-one mentorship program, where youth are
paired up with a teacher and they get together a minimum of once a week at the
Club to talk about what is happening in their lives, do projects together and
of course, have fun!
Did you know that with a mentor, at-risk youth are:
o 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school
o 55% more likely to be enrolled in college
o 46% less likely than their peers to start using drugs
o 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities
o 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities
o 130% more than twice as likely to say that they hold a leadership position in a club or sports team
Check out this video from https://youtu.be/kCNHCkgKqHc and think about who mentored you, how did it help you be where you are today and consider volunteering or mentoring a youth at the Boys & Girls Club or in your community. BE Great!
Vanessa Merhib
serving Brookings, Moody County & Yankton
Growing your own food is more popular now than ever before. It is estimated than 1 in 3 American households are growing a portion of the food that they consume. Earlier this spring the club received a $1,000 One Step Garden Grant from Hy-Vee. With that grant the club has been able to implement a gardening club program with the help of parent volunteers and an SDSU horticulturist. We also had some of the Brookings Area Master Gardeners come and teach us lessons about herbs, and soil. We were able to grow a variety of vegetables such as kale, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cabbage, broccoli, onions, and pollinator flowers.
Throughout this summer our 1-5th grade club members and teens have had lessons on nutrition, physical activity, bugs, culinary arts, and the importance of watering and pulling weeds. With the food that we have grown we have been able to bring the kids into the kitchen to teach them different ways to prepare the food that they have grown such as strawberry jam, kale chips, veggie pizza, and zucchini muffins. We have also taken field trips to Sanderson’s Garden, SDSU Local Foods Program & Student Garden, and Good Roots Farm & Garden where the kids were able to get even more hands on experience planting, harvesting, and tasting new foods.
Having a balanced diet and eating a variety of healthy foods is crucial to the body and brain development in children, but as most adults know it isn’t always the easiest to get kids to eat their fruits and veggies. When kids grow their own food they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for the food that they have “created” and grown themselves, so they are more willing to try it. You might be thinking to yourself that your child still wouldn’t try it, but I can almost guarantee you they will be more willing to try it. I was amazed when I had kids eating kale, broccoli, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers raw from the garden. They couldn’t get enough of it!
If you are thinking of starting a garden for you or your family here are some great resources to get you started:
http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/vegetable-gardening/5069.html
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/vegetable/vegetables/planning-your-first-vegetable-garden/
- Kayla Wede, Healthy Lifestyles Lead Youth Development Specialist
