08.22.2011

Help Change a Life by Mentoring

-A 55-year-old man who dreams of being able to touch people as a physical therapist one day and help restore and heal them.
-A 19-year-old who failed the 10th grade, dropped out and now can’t find employment.
-A 45-year-old who dropped out in 10th grade and has a dream to go to culinary school.
-A 23-year-old with two daughters working odd jobs to provide for his family.
-A 56-year-old machinist who is losing his job of 22 years.
-A 19-year-old who dropped out in 7th grade and has a dream to go to college one day.
-A maintenance man who dropped out in 11th grade because of a pregnant girlfriend he wanted to support.

These are just a few of the men on the waiting list for the October kick-off of a GED program for men offered by CWJC of Middle Tennessee in the Madison area!

When asked about the role models these men have had in life, the vast majority have stated there’s never been a man in their life who they’ve looked up to. That’s something we want to change. Every man who participates in our GED program will have a mentor – just like every woman who participates in the program does.

A mentor is just someone who is there for you to encourage you when you’re down, to offer you hope when you see a hopeless situation, to listen when no one else will, to believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself and more than anything else to show you the love of God. Mentoring is a process of initiating, building and maintaining a loving and supportive relationship with another human being.

Statistics show that people from generational poverty have an overwhelming sense that no one who is making it believes in them. Too many of them believe they are not smart and that there is no hope. They need opportunities to succeed. Helping someone see that they do have the potential to realize their dreams is what CWJC is all about. Graduates frequently state that they never would have made it and gotten their GED without the support of their mentor.

If you want to help change a life by believing in someone, contact us about mentoring. A mentor must be at least 25 years of age with an active faith. You must complete four hours of mentor training and make a commitment to give at least one hour a week of your time to the person you will mentor.

“I became a mentor hoping to help someone else see their potential and change,” said one volunteer. “She changed and she realized her dream, but I changed even more. I realized how blessed I have been all my life and I realized that while bad choices might result in some of the things she experienced in her life, being born into a family living in poverty, with no value placed on getting a good education and with the daily struggles she has faced just trying to provide for her child, she is much stronger than I am and her faith is much larger than mine. “My mentoring has grown me in my worship of God.”
 
Call 244-3669 to learn more about chances to mentor. Each of our three satellite sites – and now our men’s program – has a need for mentors. In fact, women and men are frequently on our waiting list because we don’t have a mentor for them. Help change a life by helping someone believe in themselves and in God.