How to Become a Mentor to Troubled Kids

Some children today live in miserable environments without responsible adults around to help nurture and guide them. If you desire to make a positive difference in the lives of some of these young people, you should consider becoming a mentor. You can offer encouragement, share your knowledge and inspire those who need to have healthy relationships with grown-ups who care about them and their future. 

Instructions

1. What You Can Do

   • 1
     Have compassion and patience. You will need both of these attributes to work with children who may suffer from low self-esteem and social and economic disadvantages.
     
   • 2
     Be willing to sacrifice your free time. Mentoring may require you to spend additional hours talking with, advising and helping kids, such as evenings and weekends.
     
   • 3
     Get training. In some cases, you may have to go through a training process. This will show you how to communicate more effectively with children and establish what lines not to cross with them.
     
   • 4
     Get screened. If you are going to be close to children, you must agree to have your background thoroughly screened in order to confirm that they will not be put at risk in your presence.
     
   • 5
     Volunteer your services to schools and organizations that need positive role models for at-risk children. You can go into classrooms and read to kids, help teachers, create projects and do other things that enable you to work closely with young people. Organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, sororities, fraternities and other groups regularly encourage successful members of the community to give their time to helping troubled youths.
     
   • 6
     Be a good listener. Children don't want to feel as though they are always going to be lectured about something, but that they have an adult who is willing to listen to them share their feelings, hopes, dreams, anger and frustration.
     
   • 7
     Gear youngsters toward a more success-oriented attitude. Many of them have been inundated by negative messages of failure and poor role models. They have been led to believe that they can never rise above their circumstances and that their lives could never change for the better. As a mentor, you can assist them in developing a more hopeful view of what their future can hold by helping them set higher goals and telling them about practical ways they can achieve a better way of life.