Cherry on Mentoring: Age is no Barrier to Volunteering as a SAYes Mentor
Everyone in a community benefits when young people and older people connect. The experience links generations, expands perspectives, offers new purpose and harnesses new energy. The great news is that SAYes provides a space for these constructive relationships to form, which they do successfully over and over again.
You can commit to becoming a SAYes mentor as young as age 26 as long as you’re in a stable job with reliable transportation, and you have the ability to meet with a young person for an hour every week. There isn’t one right age to become a mentor and at SAYes, they really encourage people of different ages and backgrounds to volunteer.
When an 18‑year‑old meets with an independent 30‑year‑old, they can relate on an important level. The mentee can begin to envision themselves in a similar space as the 30‑year‑old, managing comparable work and life situations. Equally, a 30‑year‑old mentor can understand the day‑to‑day stresses that an 18‑year‑old mentee faces, with the ability to share their own experiences and how they dealt with life at that age, which wasn’t so long ago.
Mentors who have children at home similar in age to their mentees find the experience beneficial because it allows them to feel in touch with what’s going on in a young person’s life from an objective view. Mentees are always in need of more adult role models who can offer different perspectives and advice.
If you’re a SAYes volunteer with a grown child who’s old enough to mentor, consider speaking with Match Support and your mentee about bringing them along to your weekly meetings. Likewise, if you’re a younger mentor, consider bringing your parent or grandparent along to your meeting. Let them see exactly what the experience is like and if it’s something they might be interested in doing on their own.
My hope for next year is that we can increase volunteer numbers from all age groups.
Thanks for reading, Cherry