Mentors And Mindfulness for Underprivileged Youths: How Kids Can Benefit & Grow For The Future
Mentors are important for kids of all ages, but they can be especially beneficial for underprivileged youths.
Through our model, mentors can provide guidance and support, offer practical advice, and serve as role models. Not only that, they can offer children exposure to different cultures, mindfulness, and practices like yoga and meditation which greatly impact that mental health of today's youth.
It is a proven fact that kids who have mentors are 40% more likely to graduate from high school and 55% more likely to enroll in college. What's more is that they are also less likely to engage in criminal activity. Yet, only 1 in 3 young people grow up with a mentor by their side. Coupled with our passion for Yoga practice and emphasis on mindfulness, we believe a mentor is truly capable of changing lives.
We want to help create generations of healthy, supported, mindful students with the knowledge, access, and support to be successful. Read on to find out if mentorship is right for your child!
What Does A Mentor Do?
The foundational principle for any mentor is: help the mentee grow into the most fully realized, confident, and capable version of themselves.
Mentoring is a positive force that is truly life changing for both mentors and mentees alike. Mentoring focuses on building a relationship that will benefit both the mentor and the mentee. As such, mutual respect is a cornerstone of the mentoring relationship.
A mentor commonly helps improve performance in school by providing support in the form of a role model that the child may be missing. Many children with behavioral & mental health challenges, single-parent households, and histories of trauma benefit greatly from having a mentor.
This is because the mentor helps broaden horizons and experience new activities or cultures.
We match each student with four mentors from various walks of life to ensure multiple points of contact every week between students, mentors, and HLF. Our goals are:
- For students to have the same positive role models throughout the program, thus providing a stable support system to offset the transience that many mentees experience in their lives;
- Students are exposed to and inspired by cultures, people and concepts outside of their normal daily life;
- Students are supported to achieve their academic, physical, and mental needs and can take control of their future to succeed in any venture they may choose.
How Can Our Kids Benefit From Mentors?
Our comprehensive approach helps children develop their inner lives through yoga, mindfulness, and self-care.
Much research has been done on how a mentor can affect the life of a child. Dr. Jean Rhodes, Director of MENTOR/University of Massachusetts Boston Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring says:
Virtually every aspect of human development is fundamentally shaped by interpersonal relationships. So it stands to reason that when close and caring relationships are placed at the center of a youth intervention, as is the case in mentoring programs, the conditions for healthy development are ripe.
In light of this, unfortunately many underprivileged students lack those positive relationships and structures from which to draw the necessary love, support and positivity to succeed.
By combining the power of interpersonal relationships and a focus on mental health, mindfulness, and the benefits of yoga, HLF believes that a mentoring program is perfectly suited to meet the needs of all kinds of underprivileged kids.
The Mentor can help empower kids with the necessary tools and skills for peaceful conflict resolution, improved focus and concentration, greater control and awareness of thoughts and emotions, improved self-regulation, as well as stress reduction and relaxation. This is achieved through a focus on yoga, meditation, breathing, tai-chi, centering, and other mindfulness techniques.
There Are Benefits For The Mentor As Well
Just as there and numerous benefits for the child, the relationship is one of growth for the mentor as well.
- Grow your leadership skills
- Learn from your mentee and experience new perspectives in the same way that they do
- It's great to have on your resume
- Receive a chance to give back and pay it forward.
Mentors are mentors in the truest sense of the word. They teach you how to live and they give you a chance at life that many kids won't ever get.
If you're looking for mentors, we have mentors who would be happy to come into your school or organization and donate their time as a mentor for underprivileged youths. Not only would they be donating their time, but they would offer all of the various methods we use to help center children in mindfulness and wellness.
We hope this post helped shed some light on why mentors can help youth succeed!