Congratulations to the participants of Riis’ first community mentoring initiative for completing the program last month! The cohort of 17 mentees and 7 mentors formed strong bonds over the course of 12 weeks, meeting at the Queens Public Library in LIC for icebreakers, team building and relationship building activities, community asset mapping, games, and more. Each mentee received a backpack full of school supplies as well as a tablet to keep. They used these tablets during the sessions and throughout the week to communicate with their mentors via the innovative mentoring app CricketTogether.
At the end of the program, participants received certificates and gift bags, and presented final projects to one another. In their feedback surveys, mentees shared a wide range of skills that they learned, including “self-management,” “how to make friends by talking to new people,” “kindness and patience,” and how to “show your emotions.” One mentee wrote: “I got to feel an emotion I never got to feel, I felt wanted.” When asked to rate the statement “My mentor made me feel good about myself” on a scale from 1-5, 80% of mentees gave a 5/5. When asked how we can improve the program for next time, one mentee stated, “It’s already perfect!”. We are proud to be able to offer this immensely impactful programming for young people, and we are grateful to the staff and mentors who made it all happen!
