DIANELLA Secondary College will be the first WA school to take part in a youth mentoring foundation’s in-school mentoring program.
Raise Foundation’s inaugural Ismo program, delivered to 80 schools in Australia, will be running for 20 weeks at the college where trained volunteers and program counsellor Rebecca Lyon will mentor students from years 8 to 10.
The program is focused on achieving outcomes including self-esteem, confidence, engagement and school attendance.
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READ NOWVolunteer mentors will be trained through a two-day Tafe-accredited training course from February 27 to 28.
Dianella Secondary College principal Wayne Austin said it was an exciting opportunity for the college, which had more than 60 different cultures, many who come from significant disadvantage.
“A quality mentoring program provides our students with an opportunity to engage in a supportive and risk free relationship with a significant other,” he said.
“Raise clearly go to great lengths to ensure the mentor is well trained and for me this is the key to a successful mentoring program.
“Our students will gain a great deal of confidence from the mentor, being able to look someone in the eye, to confidently convey a point of view, while learning about our world from someone neutral to the school.”
Ms Lyon said the program wanted to seek seven more mentors before one-on-one training started in term two.
“It is really about looking at how we can change our pathways of those young people who aren’t happy and that don’t have anyone else to talk to,” she said,
“If we can improve their engagement in school and they are actually enjoying school and feeling better about being there.
“That sort of goes to show that you’d hope for those students to continue with their school studies and perhaps strive for goals they might not have thought they would be able to achieve.”
For more information, visit http://www.raise.org.au.
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