Building Trust: Why Mentor?

This week in YESS our scholars discussed why mentoring is an important part of a successful, thriving community, particularly in relation to building trust and showing support for others in order to rid our communities of acts of microagression and cyberbullying. We spent the beginning of the week discussing mentoring and how it can help strengthen individuals and those with whom they come into contact. Our scholars then designed a map of their community and indicated where they thought mentoring should be adopted and why.

Once we got the conversation started, many offered out ideas as to where they thought mentoring might be helpful: in businesses and offices such as the police station, firehouse, and local government; in the realm of athletics on different sports teams and at local recreation centers; at local parks and other popular hang out spots (favorite restaurants, local stores, and neighborhood blocks); at home in the form of mentors who can support older siblings; and finally during times of transportation in our community, such as the bus ride or walk to Shaw Heights. A couple even mentioned that they would like to have a mentor at King Soopers to show them what sort of healthy foods they should be buying, and how they should prepare meals at home. It was a wonderful conversation that really got our mentors thinking about how they can affect positive change outside of Shaw Heights.

After we completed our community maps, we got to work on our Facebook Questionnaire and Google slide presentations. Each scholar filled out a worksheet which resembled a Facebook page, filling out information on what their favorite subjects are, who is in their family, and what they dream about achieving in the future. Mentors and mentees then switched papers in order to begin building a slide show presentation about their partner. The scholars did a great job of including the important information about his or her partner while adding fun clip art and other images to really make the presentations pop. We will be presenting them to the class this week, and everyone is so excited to use the giant "Smart TV" to present their work to the class.


Several of our scholars entered the YESS "EmoTroll" Art Contest, and we are eagerly awaiting the results. The contest asked one to reconsider the "EmoTrolls" used in the YESS curriculum to come up with a new take on the art work and to redraw the faces of at least three characters with names (and matching emotions) such as "Bomby," "Vengy," and "Smiley." We have so many talented artists in our program, and it was wonderful to see the creative and unique entries that were submitted.

This week we will begin to move into deeper discussions around defining success and relationship management. Stay tuned for more pictures once we present our Google slide shows!