Helping Youth THRIVE!

Kids 'n Kinship had a fantastic chat group this week about helping mentees thrive!  THANKS to all 16 mentors who attended and shared their challenges and successes in mentoring! 

We had a lively discussion about how to help youth thrive.  Using the StepItUp2Thrive curriculum, we talked about what a spark is (a passion, hobby or interest which motivates us to make the world a better place) and how to identify a mentee's sparks and support them.  We also discussed how to differentiate between a fixed mindset (in which youth believe their skills & intelligence are innate and unchangeable) and a growth mindset, (in which youth believe they can learn and improve over time).  Youth with a growth mindset are much more dedicated to learning and working hard in school and in life and thus are more successful than those with a fixed mindset. We talked about educating youth about this distinction and encouraging them to adopt a growth mindset by praising any effort or progress and discouraging negative self-talk or labeling.  Finally we covered the importance of small, measurable goals determined by the youth, not set upon them by others.  

All of us at Kids 'n Kinship are so grateful to our fantastic volunteers who go above and beyond to support their mentees!

For more on StepItUp2Thrive curriculum, go to StepItUp2thrive.org
For more on sparks, go to http://www.search-institute.org/sparks

For more on the concept of mindset, go to http://mindsetonline.com/

To learn more about mentoring through Kids 'n Kinship, go to www.kidsnkinship.org