About Mentor Me Re-Connect
Everyone Needs a Champion...
Mentor Me Re-Connect (MMRC) is one of the Organisation of African communities in WA (OACWA) youth mentoring programs. MMRC will provide life-changing transformation opportunities mentoring programs to young African Australians in WA. The program will form partnerships with the WA Department of Justice, Police, Department of Child Protection, local schools around Perth Metro and the Juvenile Court/Justice System. Mentor MMRC’s goal is to foster a commitment to young people that will create a community of empowerment for all young African Australians on their journey to Adulthood. OACWA believes only through personal relationships young people can develop a sense of individual responsibility to navigate the challenges of adolescence particularly acute for young people growing up without fathers in neighborhoods facing deprivation, violence, and drugs, where positive male role models are in short supply.
Through constant failures in family, parenting, the system and the development of destructive habits, at-risk young people have lost confidence in the possibilities that await them if they are successful in putting their lives together. To accomplish this goal, OACWA has decided to provide their young people with a community based mentoring approach that gives the young people a variety of positive role models who show up consistently, being honest about the struggles of being and African Australian, ask the young people what kind of person they want to be, praise them for their gifts, support them when they mess up and encourage them to become the individual they want to be.
Mentor Me Re-Connect is a program that is in direct response to the growing number of young African Australian boys that are either falling through the cracks at school, involved in gang groups or are already entangled with the juvenile court system. The goal of the program is to identify youths who are going to have a turbulent transition to adulthood and offer a positive support system to avoid the pitfalls that can derail their lives. The focus is slightly different at each level but the goal remains the same; empower the young person to make positive changes in his/her life.
Mentor Me Re-Connect mentoring programs will pair youth with a mentor for 6 -12 months. During that time the two will participate in weekly planned activities to strengthen the relationship between the two and improve the young person's confidence and hopefulness. Mentors will receive continuous training throughout the year and will participate in monthly meetings to report the young person's progress.
Over time, Mentor Me Re-Connect will create a learning environment that will be an invaluable resource to young people, aspiring mentors and the community at large.
Objectives
Mentor Me Re-Connect is being established to provide the African Community the capacity to identify and respond to the risk factors through culturally appropriate mentoring for at-risk youth. The program will create partnerships with the WA Department of Justice, Police, Department of Child Protection, local schools around Perth Metro and the Juvenile Court/Justice System. Mentor Me Re-Connect matches a caring adult volunteer with a referred youth. Mentor Me Re-Connect will setup four distinct mentoring programs:
Mentorship capability – Training Program: Existing participants of a current OACWA mentorship program, namely “Stop the Violence” will be provided with the opportunity to broaden their mentorship skills through specialised training aimed at working with young people at risk and in the justice system.
Youth at risk – Mentorship Program: This program aims to ensure that through the provision of appropriate mentoring, young people at risk will be diverted from involvement with the juvenile justice system and will become more integrated into the community.
Youth in the justice system – Mentorship Program: This program is targeted towards young African people who are in contact with the Justice system either cautioned, on bail or community supervisions orders, in prison or recently released from prison.
Reconnecting Young person to Family – Parenting and Community Forums
Mission
Supporting African young people, families, and communities in recognizing that crime and opportunity are inextricably linked and invest in building their skills to enhance positive development that reduces the likelihood of involvement in the justice system through:
- Social Growth and behavioral
- Emotional discipline
- Employment
- Economic
- Spiritual guidance
- A lifelong love for learning
