BTO Coordinator Report
Lynden High School
March 31, 2021
Reflection to share: This has been a challenging month for me personally as my mother has brain cancer and is undergoing treatment; I have been gone several days lately. As I have checked in with mentors and students, I have felt their care and support. Mentors ask how my Mom is doing and express concern; students see that modeled for them by their mentors, and learn to do the same. Sometimes we have the perspective that teens are only focused on themselves, but so many students have reached out to me in this time to see how I am doing. When mentors show care and support for their students, it helps the students learn to show empathy and concern for others as well. By caring, we teach the next generation to do the same.
Program Update:
- New referrals—2 freshman boys this week.
- 18 mentor/mentee pairs have been meeting each week in person at the high school either after school or on Fridays
- Another mentor student pair reconnected in person this month after not seeing each other since March 2020!
- 9 mentor/mentee pairs have been meeting regularly in the community with off-campus contract privileges
- A few other pairs are meeting via zoom weekly or bi-weekly
- Some are still struggling to connect for a variety of reasons
- continuing with 7 pairs on the text bridge pilot
Mentor Training/Support
- Therapuetic Mentoring Course: I am completing a 20-hour course online through University of Massachusetts Boston and learning quite a bit! Thank you to the donor who covered the fees for this course. I hope to incorporate lessons learned into our mentor programs and share with the other coordinators.
- Mentoring for Equity Course: Attending an upcoming online 3 part course offered through Mentor Washington to learn and see how we can better train and prepare our mentors.
Upcoming:
- Planning toward “End of the Year” wrap up. Won’t be able to have a large end of the year event due to Covid. Our current schedule doesn’t lend itself to interviews in the same way as we did in previous years. May have to use a survey instead. Considering possibilities and figuring out what will work best.
- Starting April 19th, we will have all students on campus 4 days a week until 12:20. This won’t require changing many current mentor appointment times, and may actually allow for more students to meet after school with mentors.
- Youth Mental Health First Aid Course: Our district will be setting up classes for this spring/summer, and Brian and I will be able to co-teach and offer this to mentors and community members. We will advertise as soon as we have the dates set.