Address to launch of Youth Mentoring Trust website
Hon Nanaia Mahuta
25 May 2006
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for inviting me to your launch of the Youth Mentoring Trust website. As Minister of Youth Affairs, I always welcome the opportunity to meet with people from the youth sector.
I want to begin by acknowledging the huge value of the Youth Mentoring Trust and your work to support, increase, and improve youth mentoring in New Zealand. To Trust chair Jim Peters, and to Trust members Ann Dunphy, Claire Stewart, Bill Gavin, and Douglas Cowie, my warmest thanks and appreciation.
Mentoring is of enormous value to youth development. Research shows that mentoring can help a young person develop increased self-esteem and self-confidence. It can help a young person set positive goals, enhance their feelings of identity and wellbeing, and result in better relationships and decision-making.
The vision of the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa, which as Minister I am responsible for, is of a country where young people are vibrant and optimistic, through being supported and encouraged to take up challenges.
Clearly, mentoring is one of the most effective ways to provide that support and encouragement. Many of the Ministry of Social Development's programmes involve mentoring. They include programmes like Youth Transitions Services for at-risk young people, or the SAGES Older People as Mentors programme for young families. And mentoring is integral to the programmes funded by the Ministry of Youth Development, like the Conservation Corps, Youth Service Corps, and Young New Zealanders' Challenge.
A research report commissioned by the Ministry of Youth Development and published in 2004 highlighted the importance of mentoring in supporting young people to develop their strengths.
The report, Young Males, investigated strengths-based approaches to youth development for young men, and it looked at mentoring schemes here in New Zealand and around the world. It found that reliable, supportive, non-judgemental mentors who allow young people to decide how to achieve their goals make an enormous difference to the young person's motivation, confidence, and desire to succeed. You can find a full copy of the report on the Ministry's website.
Another report commissioned by the Ministry last year, this one profiling 17 young entrepreneurs, reached very similar conclusions about the importance of mentoring. Successful young entrepreneurs often reported having had entrepreneurial role models when they were growing up, people they learned from, were inspired by, and modelled themselves on. Ongoing mentoring support is also important, as they make their way in their chosen field.
As an umbrella group for mentoring organisations, the Youth Mentoring Trust is an invaluable source of support, information, networking and advocacy for New Zealand's many and varied mentoring organisations. You are, in a sense, the mentors' mentor.
Each of your trustees is a leader in mentoring, education, and youth development fields, and through the Trust you combine your expertise and commitment for the benefit of mentors and the young people they work with. Now, your new website will do a great deal to raise your profile, and the profile of mentoring itself.
Accessible to everyone with a computer and a modem, www.youthmentoring.org.nz has resources to advise people wanting to start up a mentoring group, help people find a mentoring group anywhere in New Zealand, and provide access to local and international research about mentoring.
All successful mentoring is based on relationships, based on people, and your website reinforces this with its section containing the stories and comments of mentors and the young people they've worked with. The site looks great and is very easy to navigate, and I congratulate you for developing such a professional and useful resource.
Having a website should also greatly increase the awareness and understanding of mentoring among young people themselves. The Internet is fast becoming the information choice of young people, with an estimated 75% of New Zealand students having access to and using the Internet.
That's why the Ministry of Youth Development chose the web as our vehicle for the Youth Voices Aotearoa brand. Youth Voices Aotearoa draws together all the Ministry projects that aim to get young people involved in schools, communities, local councils, and in government throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Ministry's youth participation programmes are about giving young people a voice in decision making, getting young people's opinions heard so that change happens, and putting young people's ideas into action on issues that are important to them.
Projects include the Activate Youth Advisory Group, which keeps government informed about young people's perspectives; the PROVOKE project, encouraging advocacy among young people in schools and community groups; the New Zealand Youth Parliament; and projects promoting youth participation in local government decision making.
Getting young people involved and speaking out about the things that matter to them is not only important for its own sake. It's also important because it helps to dispel the all-too common stereotypes of young people as disaffected, lazy, uninterested, or selfish.
Last week was Youth Week 2006, and the theme was to challenge these stereotypes and redefine young people as citizens with plenty to offer. It was a very successful week, with loads of activities that celebrated celebrating young people for who they really are, in all walks of life.
All the projects I've mentioned are about giving young people the right platforms and opportunities to use and develop their strengths. The Youth Development Strategy, as our framework for positive youth development, takes this strengths-based approach to working with young people.
This is not to pretend that young people don't experience problems. There is no denying that many of the young people mentors work with face some very challenging issues, and that mentors have a vital role in helping them face up to and resolve these issues. To do so successfully, we need to see the young person not as a problem to be solved, but as a potential success needing some help along the way.
I want to close this address by returning to the theme I opened with - acknowledging the commitment and the contribution made by the Youth Mentoring Trust.
As you point out on your website, our communities are becoming more fragmented, and traditional sources of support for young people are no longer as readily available as they once were. This makes it vital that we develop ways to ensure young people receive the guidance and support they need - that we don't just leave it to chance.
The good that you do, however, spreads well beyond the organisations you support, and the young people who are supported in turn. People like you, giving your time and energy to positive causes like mentoring, are vital to building our communities' social capital.
Social capital consists of the networks of trust, support, and goodwill in a community. It consists of the contributions people make to the community's wellbeing, contributions that go beyond their immediate self-interest.
Social capital is about people not living as isolated units, but recognising that we are all part of our community, and we all have something to give to that community.
Our young people today are the parents, workers, leaders, and mentors of tomorrow. The more we can do to help young people find their place in the world and move forward with confidence, the better that future looks. Thank you for your commitment to New Zealand's young people, and congratulations once again on the launch of your website. It will take you far!
Address to the Inaugual Youth Mentoring Conference
Hon Steve Maharey
August 23 2000
Thank-you for inviting me to speak at this, the Inaugural Youth Mentoring Conference. It is a pleasure to join you today.
Many of you have dedicated your time and energy to setting up and organising valuable services to help New Zealand's children and young people fulfil their potential. For this I applaud you.
WHAT IS MENTORING?
In some ways it is a little incongruous to be speaking at the first conference on youth mentoring in New Zealand given that mentoring itself is as old as time.
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are the first teachers and mentors of the young. In earlier times extended family living provided a wealth of mentoring support to children. The breadth of the social networks ensured that children were exposed to a range of skilled and competent adults with different attributes and skills to impart.
But mentoring responsibilities also extend well beyond ties of blood. Hillary Clinton has often quoted the African proverb that: 'it takes a village to raise a child'
This stresses the mutual responsibility of adults to guide, protect and mentor the young.
Of course, for better or worse, most of us do not live in social structures akin to the traditional village society. With the advent of the 'global village' we have formalised and professionalised some of these mentoring relationships. After all what is teaching if not mentoring? And is a Police youth specialist not a contemporary rendition of the village guardian and mentor of the young?
But of course there are some constants. Religious beliefs and philosophies, whether first nation, Muslim, Jewish, or Christian have provided moral and spiritual guidance, in fact a framework for living for old and young alike. While some of these institutions have been in decline, the start of the 21st century has seen a resurgence in church attendance by the young, often in the more charismatic faiths.
So mentoring is not a new or unfamiliar concept. Many people here will have experienced a mentoring relationship, either through their studies, in their jobs or within their familial or friendship relationships. Many of these relationships are perhaps unplanned and unstructured but they still achieve the goals.
But changes to family structure with more single parent families, increasing awareness of family violence, and a diminution of extended family and informal community support has seen a need for the evolution of structured and planned mentoring relationships.
Modern or formalised mentoring has been seen as a way of achieving specific goals and the evaluation of those mentoring relationships is a more recent advance.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in America defines mentoring as
"A one to one relationship between a pair of unrelated individuals, one an adult aged 21 or older (mentor) and the other a juvenile (mentee) which takes place on a regular basis over an extended period of time. It is usually characterised by a "special bond of mutual commitment" and "an emotional character of respect, loyalty and identification. "
The actual form of Mentoring, as a specific and service oriented intervention in a child's life has become more defined. Internationally, best practice principles have been identified, benchmarks for effective programmes have been set and structures and processes are implemented to provide a framework for the Mentoring programme.
BEST PRACTICE AND MENTORING
Sound ethical and best practice principles are critical in any mentoring programme.
In fact any programme that places our children and young people in the care of strangers must ensure the very highest standards.
And that includes carefully checking who is working with our young people.
Lets not pussyfoot around the issue - paedophiles have successfully infiltrated a number of mentoring type agencies in the past and will try to do so in the future. Scouting type groups both here and overseas have been left reeling, having belatedly realised that not everyone seeks to be involved for the right reasons.
I applaud the fact that you have put the issue on the conference agenda and I look forward to seeing the results of your work on Best Practice and National Standards.
Internationally, a number of best practice principles have been identified that, if present, will greatly contribute to the success of the mentoring programme and the mentoring relationships. Some examples of the practices of effective mentors are:
Having mentors that:
- Maintain a steady presence in a youth's life;
- Respect the youth's viewpoint;
- Pay attention to kid's need for "fun";
- Get to know their mentee's families, but don't become too involved with them; and
- Seek and use the help and advice of programme staff.
Some programme practices that seem to develop and enhance the mentoring relationship are:
- That mentors are carefully screened and assessed;
- That the children and mentors are matched according to their similar interests;
- Providing training of at least six hours for Mentors prior to the mentoring relationship beginning;
- Ensuring that the mentor has contact, at least monthly, with the Programme Provider/Supervisor when the mentoring relationship has begun;
- Encouraging the mentors to engage the children in both social and academic activities; and
- Focusing more training and support on those mentors who are working with older youth.
This Conference provides an ideal opportunity to share international and local experiences and to begin to develop a clearer understanding of those key mentoring principles that may be uniquely Kiwi.
This is your chance to draw on the best of local and overseas experience to design programmes that best meet the needs of children and young people here in New Zealand.
INTERNATIONAL MENTORING PROGRAMMES: SOME OUTCOMES
It is also to our benefit that mentoring programmes have been evaluated and we are learning more about the outcomes that can be achieved.
I quote here from an April 2000 report prepared by the Public/Private Ventures group- "Recent research has highlighted the positive effects of mentoring, the most significant and well-documented of which are improvements in youth's grades, school attendance and family relationships, and the prevention of drug and alcohol initiation. " This statement was made as a result of a survey of 722 mentoring programmes across America.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention evaluation Report to Congress in 1998 on the Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) reported that overall both the mentors and the children positively identified the achievements that had been made through the mentoring relationship. Although, in some areas the mentors and the children did have different perceptions about the benefits of the relationship. For example, their preliminary data indicated that some mentors perceived different gender and ethnicity matches as being less beneficial to the children. The children's perceptions of the benefits achieved did not differ significantly, regardless of gender or ethnicity matching . How we in New Zealand would regard different gender and ethnicity matches in the mentoring relationship is going to be an important issue for your consideration. Particular issues such as the importance of te reo and Maori tikanga will necessarily form part of your decision making.
Benefits have been found in a variety of mentoring relationships. These relationship types and their benefits are:
1. One on One Mentoring
The children:
- Were less likely to initiate drug and alcohol use
- Were less likely to hit someone
- Skipped fewer days of school
- Felt more competent about their ability to do well in school
- Received slightly higher school grades
- Reported more positive relationships with friends and parents.
2. One on One Mentoring embedded in a broader academically oriented programme
The children:
- Had improved academic performance
- Were more likely to participate in college preparatory activities
- Were more likely to attend college immediately after high school graduation
- Remained longer in college.
3. One on One Mentoring embedded in a substance abuse prevention programme
The children:
- Had better attitudes toward school and the future
- Used substances less frequently
- Had better school attendance.
4. Group Mentoring programmes
The children:
- Had better attitudes toward school, their families and communities
- Had better school attendance .
So it does seem that while there are common benefits, there are also some specific rewards available to carefully designed mentoring programmes.
As many of you will know, I have three portfolio areas: Social Services and Employment, Tertiary Education, and the Community / Voluntary Sector, all of which are relevant to the mentoring outcomes I have just listed.
If we are to enjoy a strong and healthy society we must raise generations of children and young people who can see the intrinsic value in education and who are caring members of their community. Youth mentoring appears to offer one way of strengthening both these factors.
MENTORING IN NEW ZEALAND
Youth mentoring has also been seen as a effective measure to prevent youth offending. The Crime Prevention Unit funded six pilot mentoring programmes around New Zealand. The overall objectives were to:
- Develop sustainable positive relationships between youth at risk and adult role models;
- Develop positive interests, skills and pro-social behaviour patterns among youth at risk;
- Enhance school attendance and academic performance of youth at risk; and
- Facilitate community action to support youth and prevent youth offending.
While these were the overall goals of the Project, I understand that there was enough flexibility to enable each of the six pilot sites to reflect the needs of the unique communities in which they operated. This is important, as all communities are different and "one size does not fit all."
These goals directly target some of those factors that have been identified in the literature as having a high correlation with youth offending. Poor school attendance, poor academic achievement, and mixing with anti-social peers are some of the factors that exist in the backgrounds of most serious and recidivist youth offenders. Additionally many of these young people have poor relationships with adults and live in communities that cannot or will not offer them the support and nurture they need to succeed.
The Demonstration Project evaluation report correctly identifies that it is impossible to identify those children and young people who will begin to commit offences or will suffer from poor life outcomes. However, the report does determine that many, if not all of the programmes evaluated, achieved significant improvements to the lives of the children and young people who were able to remain in a long-term relationship with a suitably matched mentor. This means that the "at risk" nature of the child's situation is eased, which in turn means that a greater level of wellbeing is achieved.
I guess the only note of caution that I would add here, and I'm sure you are all aware of it, is that mentoring relationships that break off prematurely or in an unplanned way can cause harm to children and young people . I would urge all of you to take the required steps to ensure that the potential for harm is minimised.
MENTORING AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Some of the benefits of mentoring that I see are:
- Mentoring increases the likelihood that a child's wellbeing will improve and
- Mentoring increases the likelihood that children and young people will develop and be able to actively contribute to society.
Take the situation of Bronwyn, a ten-year-old Pakeha girl who lives with her mother, younger sister and stepfather . Bronwyn was described as depressed, having low self-esteem and, at times, being suicidal and at risk of self-harming. However, at times she also appeared "bright and breezy" and was described as having a Jeckyl and Hyde personality.
The relationship between Bronwyn's mother and father had been violent, and Bronwyn like so many children in conflict-riven homes had witnessed this violence. It was thought that Bronwyn might be feeling that her father had rejected her as he did not often visit or phone, despite promising to do so.
Domestic violence has a profound effect on children. Studies show that children from families where domestic violence is prevalent are likely to become involved with partners who are also violent or are, at least, very controlling .
With an early history of being depressed and suicidal Bronwyn was at risk of actually self-harming and then perhaps attempting or committing suicide. New Zealand's youth suicide statistics are shockingly high, particularly when compared with international statistics , particularly for a country that always prided itself as a great place to grow up.
Bronwyn was at risk of her negative behaviours becoming more entrenched and escalating to the point where the "bright and breezy" girl, who had lots of positive things about her and in her life, became lost.
Not only was Bronwyn at risk of the issues that I've mentioned, she was also at risk of becoming out of her mother's control, and, perhaps, "falling in with the wrong crowd", committing offences or becoming pregnant at a young age.
I'm sure that many of you will be all too familiar with children in this sort of situation. In fact it may not even seem that extreme, and we might think- "it's not so bad. This child will probably be O.K"
However, someone in Bronwyn's life was perceptive enough to see what might happen and referred her to the mentoring programme. By all accounts, Bronwyn is doing very well now. Bronwyn's mentor, Agnes, was caring enough to share her time and energy. Agnes made a commitment to Bronwyn, and honoured it. This showed Bronwyn that there are adults who make promises and keep them.
The Mentoring Project and Agnes, whether she knows it or not, have increased Bronwyn's resilience. There is a burgeoning volume of literature about the importance of building up a child's resilience. Some studies, looking at out of home placements, have indicated that building up resilience may be as important as planning for permanency. Some studies have shown that resilience can be built up and achieved by:
- Enhancing self-esteem,
- Improving academic achievement,
- Promoting social skills and
- Strengthening families and social supports.
It seems to me that mentoring goals address most, if not all, of these issues. As a result, a number of negative outcomes may be avoided.
It has been reported that the relationship between Bronwyn and her mother has improved, as has Bronwyn's participation at school. Bronwyn's self-esteem has increased and she seems much happier.
The mentoring service that was implemented prevented Bronwyn's negative behaviours, thoughts and emotions from becoming entrenched or escalating. It prevented one more child from being referred to a state-run agency. Now perhaps we can say with greater certainty- "it's not so bad, this child is doing O.K!"
think case examples like this powerfully demonstrate how mentoring can be a complementary service to statutory social work where, despite the best will in the world, Social Workers will never be able to provide the level of one to one contact a mentor can.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to speak to you all today at this Conference. I acknowledge the hard work and thought that has gone into developing and implementing the mentoring programmes that you, here today, are representing. I commend your efforts and acknowledge the need for Government and communities to work together to improve the lives of the children and young people who are our future.
