Information for students
Hi, I’m Jessie, I was in the Raise program a few years ago. Back then I was struggling with feeling isolated and anxious and I was highly self-critical. I found it difficult to trust others. Having someone to talk to who turned up just for me every week was a huge help.
Mentoring could not solve everything in my life but it did give me the skills to reach out to others to seek support. I was quite sensitive to others and the world around me, which I thought was a bad thing, making me ‘weak’. My mentor helped me reframe this view: actually, sensitivity can be a strength too!
Thanks to my mentor I feel more secure within myself and can accept who I am. I have hope for the future and dreams for making it the life I want to live.
Read my story
Hi, I’m Chandra, I was in the Raise program in 2017.
At the time I was depressed, shy and insecure. I felt alone and like no-one understood me. I stopped going to school. My mentor and I got on really well and the fact that I knew I could talk to her confidentially was an important aspect for me. My mentor helped validate that it was "OK, that I was not OK" and just hearing a different perspective was so important.
I started coming to school on the days that I had mentoring just so I could see my mentor. My attendance improved and for the first time I realized I could actually finish school. My mentor helped me open up and as a result I'm not a closed book anymore. To my mentor THANK YOU. Without you I don't think I would have finished school and realized that I am not alone.
Hi, I'm Anaya.
At the time, I wasn’t sure why I was selected for the program - but I am so glad I was! I was struggling with relationships in school and at home and life as an adolescent. I was feeling isolated and frustrated. I didn't have the skills to best manage situations and felt like I didn’t have anywhere to turn to for support.
My mentor helped me feel safe. She was a neutral person who I could trust and talk to, someone there just for me – only good can come from that. Thanks to my mentor I now feel in control, more independent and calmer. I became stronger in myself and made decisions for me which ultimately led to discovering who I wanted to surround myself with.
Read my storyMany of the world’s most successful people had mentors along the way….
Ash Barty credits her mentor Ben Crowe with helping her change her mindset to become the world’s no. 1 tennis player. “Ben has become a massive part of my team, helping me with my mental application and changing my perspective of things in both life and in sport."
Talking about Dean Smith, Michael said, “Other than my parents, no one had a bigger influence on my life than Coach Smith. He was more than a coach — he was my mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me whenever I needed him and I loved him for it. In teaching me the game of basketball, he taught me about life."
Adele was recently, famously reunited with her inspirational mentor, a teacher from when she was 12. On stage she said about her, “She really made us care and we knew that she cared about us." Before telling Miss McDonald, “You really did change my life.”
Everyone can benefit from having a mentor, someone who is 100% on your side, on your team and there just for you. The impact of a mentor can be life-changing.
By simply listening to you when you want to be heard
By not being judgey, and keeping your conversations private
By exploring your strengths and discovering what is awesome about you
By talking through problems when life gets complicated
By finding new ways to cope when life gets tricky
By caring about you and what matters to you
By helping you figure out where you're headed
Members of the community choose to volunteer their time, which means they don't get paid to work with you. They want to work with young people who would benefit from having a mentor.
We train all the volunteers and they provide working with children and police checks as well as being trained in how to be an awesome mentor.
They will come into the school at the same day and time every week to work one-to-one with you for an hour. We will provide you with a handbook that you can complete together or use it as a basis for your conversations. If you wanted to talk to your mentor about something else that’s important to you, that’s okay too.
You can ask us anything