Project Breakdown

What does it look like?

In conjunction with The Pavilion, PRU we have created this project with the aim of challenging the normalisation of self-destructive, violent behaviour. The project will offer a package of one-to-one (1:1) support and incorporate group workshops and follow up discussions. It includes specific focus areas identified by the PRU, young person and their families, with a holistic and tailored approach to direct the participant toward a new belief system and better functioning.

Initially the goal of the project is to establish a rapport between the mentor and mentee, importantly allowing the mentee to choose the mentor. Resilience-based activities are then incorporated into the relationship. The resilience activities provide the mentors with the tools and structure to challenge and direct the young person towards a new belief system. Many of the activities engage the participants in decision making, which develops a collaborative relationship based on trust as the participants experience that their opinion is valued and acted upon. These activities are shared with parents and they are encouraged to practise them at home.

Why use a resilience mentoring model?

A resilience-based mentoring model provides a positive framework for mentors to bring an improvement in protective factors and a decrease in risk factors in young people whose lives have been shaped by poverty, crime, family dysfunction or learning disabilities. These risk factors shape a belief system that leads to, and maintains, self-destructive behaviours in young people. At the heart of these belief systems is learned helplessness – the belief that no amount of effort will bring success.

We chose this model as the students often lack the resilience to choose behaviours that lead to long term goals being achieved. Instead, the focus is on short term satisfaction, leading to the reinforcement of self-destructive behaviours. By implementing a resilience-based model, we will help empower the students who believe that they are helpless in rising above their circumstances. We believe that using the construct of resilience to shift these belief systems to more positive outcomes has the potential to effect change that endures long after the mentoring relationship has come to an end.