TERM 4 | Edition 4 | December 2012

TERM FOUR BIRTHDAYS!!!

October… 1st—John McDonald (Mentor) 2nd—Brooke Brabham (Student) 3rd—Lynette Binney (Mentor) 7th—Min Youngman (Mentor) 10th—Tim Bartholomew (Mentor) 23rd—Maddie Kenny (Student) 27th—Jane Crowe (Staff) 28th—Joseph Hurst (Student) 29th—Yasmine Turner-Sumner (Student) 29th—Sam Gore (Student)

November… 4th—Liam Whitfield (Student) 10th—Alan McConachie (Mentor) 12th—Taylor Hunter (Student) 26th—Mark James (Mentor) 27th—Dylan Breban (Student)

December… 4th—Nea Gordon (Student) 6th—Dan Spencer (Mentor) 10th—Jeanette Ryan (Mentor) 31st—Keith Haines (Mentor)

And in the New Year… January... 8th—Carly Behncke (Mentor) 18th—Karyn Dyson (Mentor) 30th—Sarah Cross (Student)

2013…

Another year has left us behind,

and a new one is approaching very quickly…

Standing Tall Staff will return after the Christmas

break on Tuesday, 29th January.

Mentoring will resume a few short weeks later on

Monday, 18th February.

We will be in contact with you early in the new year

to confirm mentoring days for the coming year.

S ta n d i n g Ta l l w o u l d l i ke t o w i s h

y o u a n d y o u r fa m i l i e s a ve r y

h a p p y a n d s a fe C h r i st m a s , a n d

l o o k fo rw a r d t o s e e i n g y o u a l l i n

t h e n e w y e a r !

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ! ! ! Thank you so much for a brilliant year. 30 active

matches made it through this year, with lots of stories of fun adventures and projects throughout the year.

We welcomed a new staff member, Jane in February, and a brand new intake of mentors mid year, who have

all proven to be invaluable to our program. We have said our sad farewells to mentors moving onto

new chapters in their lives also. We continue to receive enormous support from our

local community supporters, without whom this program would not be what it is today!

Thank you!!

The Australian Youth Mentoring Network Biannual Conference... The AYMN is the national body that coordinates and supports mentoring programs around Australia. Every second year they hold conferences for people involved in Mentoring. This year, Tracey and Jane were able to attend this conference on the Gold Coast on the 14th-15th November. The whole experience has brought us back with so much information in our heads. Validation that we do run a very successful program that follows closely to the national benchmarks, and also areas that we can improve on. A wide variety of mentoring programs from all over Australia were represented at the conference, and we were able to benefit greatly from the networking opportunities and the lessons we learnt from industry professionals and other programs. The conference was opened by the Hon Peter Garrett MP who demonstrated his passion for mentoring, speaking on how having a mentor himself has greatly benefited him in his life. We were so grateful for this learning opportunity, and know that what we have learnt will greatly benefit our program.

Condolences…

Only in the last weeks has our mentoring family been touched

by the sadness of death…

We would like to send our sincerest love and sympathies to

the Trotter family, who tragically lost their brother/son Alex,

brother to Matt one of our mentees this year, and friend to a

number of students here at Baimbridge. We are thinking of

you all during this sad time.

Also to our Patron Mr Geoff

Handbury upon the death

of his mother-in-law, Dame

Elisabeth Murdoch.

Sincerest sympathy from

the Standing Tall family.

National Youth Mentoring Week 21st-27th October

National Youth Mentoring Week was an exciting time for us here at Standing Tall…

It was a great way to celebrate the wonderful people we have in our program, who give so much of themselves for our young people.

Firstly we celebrated by launching our new website over a lunch prepared with the help of some of our students. Local Web Designer Brentis Cooper has been working with us this year to create this for us. It can be found at www.standingtallhamilton.com.au

We are so grateful to Hamilton North Rotary Club who donates the funds to get this website developed. David Morrison from the club was there to officially launch the website.

That same night, the a number of Mentors headed out to The Botanical for what we hope might be the first of many Mentor

catch-up nights. A great opportunity for us to thank the Mentors for their wonderful efforts this year, and also for them to get to know other members of the mentoring family who they may not have spent much time with. A great night was had by all!

End of Year Celebration…

We celebrated the end of a successful year of mentoring on the night of the 29th November with a BBQ out at HIRL. We had a number of mentees and their families, mentors and committee members attend as well as the new mayor, Cr Albert Calvano and his wife. It was great to hear from some of our students and mentors on how much mentoring has impacted them in their lives. Thanks to all that attended, especially to the parents/mentors who helped out with the BBQ. And our peer-mentors, Shanai & Sarah!

Tips for effective Mentoring…

From the booklet ‘Fact Sheets for Mentors: Dealing with Bullying’ http://www.youthmentoring.org.au/assets/pages/pdf/Factsheet6_DealingwithBullying.pdf

Introduction to Bullying Bullying can be defined as conscious, wilful, deliberate, hostile and repeated behaviour by one or more people that is intended to harm others (www.bullying.org). Bullying can include: • Physical violence and attacks • Verbal taunts • Name calling and put downs • Threats and intimidation • Extortion • Stealing of money or possessions • Exclusion from the peer group There is an indisputable link between bullying in childhood and adolescent anxiety, low self-esteem, loss of confidence and depression and self-harm. In Australia, one in six students are bullied every week, with those children three times more likely to develop a depressive illness (Rigby, 1997 in Kids Help Line – Bullying, 2009).

What is Cyber Bullying?

Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, mobile phones, instant messaging, chat rooms, and web-sites to harm others. Like other forms of bullying it is about power and control in relationships where the victim is perceived as weaker. Gender differences are reflected in Cyber-bullying in a report recently in the Australian Herald Sun (2009) stating that boys were more likely to use aggressive language and ‘flood’ victims or exclude them from interacting online and girls tending to ‘masquerade’ by bullying under another identity. Cyber-bullying is even more difficult to detect than other forms of bullying and is a particularly cowardly form of bullying as the identity of the bully can easily be hidden. They often escape the consequences of their actions and can inflict intense distress on their victims. It is difficult for schools to monitor cyber-bullying as it frequently occurs outside school hours for the ‘always on’ generation.

Boys report more physical forms of bullying, and girls tend to bully in indirect ways, such as gossiping and

excluding… There is no reprieve from attack and the possibility of having social networking taken away if bullying is reported, is often unthinkable, and prevents action (Bullying.org Incorporated, 2004).

What can be done about Bullying?

Young people who are being bullied can be supported by others in the following ways: • Coaching young people to develop responses to bullies that clearly communicate that bullying is not acceptable e.g. look the bully in the eye and say “I don’t like that and I want you to stop” and walk away (Kids Help Line, Bullying Info sheet, 2004). • Teaching communication skills such as assertiveness, confident body language and self-talk (Kids Help Line, Bullying Info sheet, 2004 and www.kidpower.org). • Supporting them in the action they take e.g. approaching a teacher or other adult with them. Intervention orders are also possible and are made by the Children’s court against another child or children (Herald Sun, 2007). • Listening to them talk about their experience and how it makes them feel and let them know that they are not alone, it is not their fault and something can be done (www.bullying.org). • Talking to them about why bullies do what they do, the harm that it causes and how we all must take a stand against it if we are going to make it stop. • Get the school involved in a bullying reduction program such as Friendly Schools and Families www.friendlyschools.com.au and stay aware of the latest research around bullying prevention (www.bullying.org) such as bystander intervention (www.kenrigby.net) where those witnessing the bullying can discourage it and have a good chance of actually stopping it.

Cyber-bullying is a huge concern and The Cyber Safety Symposium Report (2007) identified a strong perception that the lack of supervision of young people using technology is exposing them to a range of significant risks including cyber bullying, sexual predation, and anti-social and harmful behaviours. The report recommends a national strategic approach but also has suggestions for parents, students, schools, Federal and State Government and industry. The report can be accessed by emailing info@amf.org.au. Specific information about reducing mobile phone bullying and other forms of cyber-bullying, (including steps for tracking emails), can be found at www.amta.org.au and www.cyberbullying.org. … we all must all take a stand against [bullying] if we

are going to make it stop.

We will continue to put tips in each newsletter, but if you want to check out more info go to: www.youthmentoring.org.au/info-for-mentors.html

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FACEBOOK… We all know how important Facebook seems to our young people these days, social media is one of the main ways young people communicate. It can be a great and powerful source of communication, but with that, there is also a dangerous side to social media as well. Standing Tall is committed to keeping our young people safe, and although we know our mentors are amazing and trusted people, we do not know who else can access our young people’s information through you. We know that a number of our Mentors have their Mentees as ‘Facebook Friends’, and that may seem harmless enough. But to keep our young people’s privacy and safety of foremost importance, we are asking that this no longer happens. Of course, we know there is a stigma around ‘defriending’ someone on Facebook amongst our young people, so we would ask that mentors have a gentle discussion with their mentees before removing them to ensure them that it is nothing personal, and just Standing Tall’s way of keeping young people safe. We are happy to talk to Mentors and Mentees about this also if needed. Tracey and Jane participated in an Australian Youth Mentoring Network Benchmark training session earlier this year, where this issue was identified. It was a policy that Mentoring Programs are to strongly adhere to, so this has led to this decision. We thank you for your understanding in this matter!

A thought for today… This year the world lost an amazing voice in Whitney Houston, and while all the tributes were playing, one song stuck out to us… it captures exactly what we want to see in our young people as their mentors… So, we would like to share a small excerpt from Whitney’s “The Greatest Love of All”...

‘I believe the children are our future Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be

Everybody's searching for a hero

People need someone to look up to I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs

A lonely place to be And so I learned to depend on me’

Our hope is that we, as mentors, family and friends of our special young people, can be that person that they can look up to, so that they never reach that lonely place where they feel they can only depend on themselves, but see themselves as important parts of our community and its future!