Mentor Memories
The survivor mentor program builds supportive relationships with high-risk youth, current victims, and recovering survivors ages 12-25—providing care and community to vulnerable youth with histories of abusive and dysfunctional relationships. Recently, we held a mentor dinner to thank all of the wonderful people that do such a wonderful job of modeling wholesome relationships, encouraging a positive self-identify, teaching life skills, and introducing healthy choices to the young people in our program.
At the dinner, the mentors were asked to share some of their memories from the past year. Here is what some of them had to say:
“One of our most fun times was getting dressed up and going out to dinner and then to see the Nutcracker Ballet. She had never been to the ballet and wasn’t sure she would like it. It was so beautiful to watch the amazement and emotion in her face during the show. She said she loved it so much and she was so appreciative!”
“My co-mentor and I took our mentee to Universal Studios. We had many great laughs and danced/goofed around at the end of the night in front of the big screen at City Walk. It was great to see her smile so much that day!”
“On her birthday, my partner and I took her to the Reagan Library and to lunch. It was near Christmas so she was able to see a tree and other historical memorabilia from her country. This seemed to delight her. Also, recently we gathered some clothes/outfits for her and I had my partner bring her to my house where we had a little tea party and then a fashion show. We were delighted that she liked so many of the clothes and they fit. She had a great big smile on her face when she stepped out of my guest room with an outfit on!! Followed up by some essential type purchases with a Target card from FF. As a side note, I had only seen her in one outfit in the year I had been seeing her.”
“Cheering her on at a half-marathon while carrying a large motivational poster with her name and favorite animal on it.”
“The hugs “
“A fun and special memory was seeing my mentee get baptized.”
“A fun activity that I brought along each time we went out was a book called Wreck This Journal. It was fun to follow the instructions in the book together and we would sometimes end up doing the silliest things! It was always a good laugh!”
“Shopping at Target for clothing with my mentee. She was so happy, like a kid in a candy store. Seeing her joy was beyond words.”
A huge thank you to all of our mentors! Jesus’ love truly shines through your passion and dedication to those who are suffering.