By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
LIFE skills are in demand at Cranbourne Secondary College, as it becomes the first Casey school to introduce the Raise Foundation’s mentoring program, and are in need of adult volunteers.
The buddy system, will partner up 15 Year 7 to 10 students with an adult mentor, who will spend two hours a week with the student for 20 weeks.
Raise counsellor Tania Di Paolo-Knight, who supervises the mentors, said the program offered young people a role model in a time of great transition in their lives.
“The mentor becomes someone the students can confide in and talk to about things that they might not do with anyone else,” Ms Di Paolo-Knight said.
“Our statistics have shown, that before the program, just 13 per cent of boys are inclined to ask for help from an adult, and 31 per cent of girls, that goes up to 80 per cent after the 20 weeks.”
Ms Di Paolo-Knight said with many students facing big decisions in Year 10, a mentor could be just what they needed.
“We had a male student say that if it wasn’t for his mentor, he would have quit school. And that it was his mentor who helped him decide what to do with his life, and he started a trade,” she said.
Mentors go through a free accredited program over three weeks.
For more information or to become a Raise Foundation mentor visit: www.raise.org.au
