We must give to others both the 'Roots and Wings'..
The roots of personal worth, of self-confidence...
The wings of self-responsibility...
The message of Roots is 'You've got it!'
The messae of Wings is 'Now go for it'.

John Powell Through Seasons of the Heart from the Roots & Wings publication on Mentoring in the Community.

Mentoring is an opportunity to show that we really care. To mentor is to oversee the care and development of an individual.

Historically, mentoring of people developed in the 1960s in the USA. Freedman (1995) notes that there are parallels with the 'Friendly Visiting' scheme of the late 19th Century whereby middle class volunteers befriended lower class 'slum dwellers'. Clearly, one of the lessons to learn form this kind of philanthropy was to avoid patronising groups in need of help, which is why most mentoring schemes attempt to match mentees with mentors from similar backgrounds.

It is very distressing to see the disproportionate amount of young black men who gets involved with drug abuse, incarceration, disease and in a lot of cases, homelessness.

In recent years, one of the main areas of helping, is helping to care for those affected with HIV and AIDS. The South London HIV Partnership is a new development in the provision of HIV support and advice services in South London. It has been formed as a result of work undertaken by health authorities and social services departments in South London and has resulted in a major reconfiguration of services in the area. The Partnership will ensure that people living with HIV can get the range of services that they need, and that these services are easy to find and use.

The Partnership is a collaboration between the Terrence Higgins Trust, Lighthouse, Blackliners Positive Place and the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS, alongside HIV Service Commissioners in Bexley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth.

If you would like to contribute in anyway, there are several charities to choose from:

• South London Buddies
• Children and Families
• Practical Help
• National Mentoring Consortium - The NMC works with a wide range of employers, universities and schools to support disadvantaged and ethnic minority communities and provide quality services and management development programs.
• Young Offenders Mentoring Project - Why not join YOMP and support a young offender who could well be from an ethnic minority background. See Mentor Benefits for more information.
• Dynamix - Actively involves itself in areas such as young people's issues (drugs, peer pressure, social exclusion, health, anti-bullying) as well as peer mediation, learning, play training, teaching and learning styles and mentoring.

Write comment
Name:
Email:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."