New Mentee’s Guide provides recommendations to young people for creating, maintaining, and leveraging relationships with mentors
My name is Denisse Gracia, and I am a member of Thrive Chicago’s Youth Advisory Board and recently finished my freshman year at National-Louis University. My role on the Board is to support youth with resources regarding mental health, opportunities, and to guide them into finding mentors who will guide them in the long-run.
Many people are excited and enjoying this heat wave, but others fear hot summer days in Chicago. I am one of them. Every year, we see that once the weather starts getting warmer, the shootings only increase. It is upsetting to see how there are shootings every day, and we only treat them as another homicide, as if it is like a normal thing.
As one of nine young adults on Thrive’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB), we have been meeting during the past six months to discuss ways to ensure community safety and prevent violence. We recognize that young people need trusted adults in their lives, and that teenagers are easily influenced by others. They may feel like joining a gang is the easy way out, or that those gang members will become their families.
In response, we have been focused on mentorship—teens and young people need mentors, someone who can guide them away from the violence. We want our youth to know that there are alternatives rather than joining gangs. We want them to know that they are not alone. With our mentorship project, Successful Mentorships: A Mentee’s Guide, we hope to get the attention of many teens and help them find mentors who will help them succeed in life, and give them their full support. Adults can start making a change by listening to our youth and giving them their time to help them.
In response, we have been focused on mentorship—teens and young people need mentors, someone who can guide them away from the violence.
Denisse Gracia
The YAB has already distributed 200 copies of these recommendations to mentorship and youth organizations throughout the city. We hope adult community leaders will share this with anyone who might be interested in creating, maintaining, and leveraging relationships with mentors—and stopping the violence that comes with the summer heat.
