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Bridges Mentor Program

Through the Bridges Mentor Program at Naperville Presbyterian Church our goal is to support parents, families, and students by providing every student an opportunity to "be connected" to a caring and trained adult mentor who will spend quality time together over a period of weeks. Female teens will be paired with female adults and male teens will be paired with male adults. Our hope is that mentor and student will build a relationship that will last throughout adolescence. Mentoring will begin on January 20, 2008. Contact Jonathan Bozarth with questions and if you need more information or would like to volunteer to be a mentor. Letters and forms were sent to parents of all eighth grade students. If you need, forms for students who want to participate here. Please try and have forms in by January 6 so matches can be made in order to begin the program on January 20.

What is mentoring?

To Mentor Is to Be There: An adult being there intentionally, consistently, and faithfully over a period of time in a student's life.
To Mentor Is to Guide: To be a teacher. However that doesn't mean formal training with a lesson plan, a curriculum, and lectures. To teach is just being willing to share what you know, informally.
To Mentor Is to Model: St. Francis of Assisi once said, Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. Teenagers tend to look up to the oldest person they can find who will take them seriously and treat them with dignity and respect. They want to find adults - ordinary adults - after whom they can pattern their lives. A mentor is not perfect, just real.
To Mentor Is to Encourage: Youth are very vulnerable to peer pressure and negative behaviors. This problem is not corrected by enrolling students in self-esteem classes or bombarding them with psychological jargon. It is done by taking a genuine interest in individual kids and doing everything possible to encourage them to become all that God intends them to become.
To Mentor Is to Care: A mentor is able to empathize with students and, like Jesus, have compassion on them and do something to show that he or she cares.

In Summary

Mentoring intentionally connects an adult with a youth.
Mentoring requires a commitment of time by both the adult and the youth.
The primary purpose of mentoring is for the youth to learn from the adult.
Mentoring is based on a relationship rather than a program.
Mentoring requires that the adult care deeply for the youth and act in his or her best interest at all times.