Being a Mentor - by Adrianna Wisnia

Over the course of two months myself and 20 other students have

been apart of a peer mentoring programme with loveLife Generation .
At the beginning it has been challenging, as we have all

been anxious on how to approach young people without secondary

thoughts, however we have all remembered some of the techniques

from previously carrying out mentoring programme with a group

of Kingsford lower years students. Those mentoring sessions have

also included learning about the boundaries between us and our

mentee’s as we would have regular meetings with them. We must

always be aware that we don’t grow a closer bond with out mentees

even though sometimes it may be quite hard to keep space

between us and still keep them feeling comfortable around us.

Throughout this time there have also been many fascinating

practices which have enabled us to prepare for the real meeting

with our peer mentee’s. Group work is what I enjoy the most about

these sessions as we can all come together as one and learn from

each other. This programme enabled me to develop my confidence,

self esteem and has build determination to make a positive change

in someone else’s life through mentoring.

During our sessions we have also learnt about the no blame

approach where we ask questions around the subject of matter to

prevent more damage from occurring and causing further conflict

between the two peers.

Overall, I can honestly say that this programme teaches me life

skills which enable me to develop my own personality and shape

it. What we practise is everyday problems which we all face in our

everyday life from bullying to feeling low or misinterpreting what

someone else has said about us. Opinions will always be shared

about us and between us, but it’s what we do with it can change our

perspective on everything. One crucial thing about these sessions

is the positive thinking that we must always have when attending

these sessions as it has a big impact on how the session goes, how

much we learn as a person as well as how we apply it to everyday

life scenarios.

Each week has bought something new to us and has given us the

chance to not only be prepared to help and support others but to

become a better person. The experience which I have gained from

these sessions is incredible and I recommend it to anyone who

wants to improve the life of others and enhance their own abilities.

My Mentoring Experience - Nikita, Kingsford School

Around 20 pupils, including myself, was chosen from Kingsford Community School to do a course for mentoring with lovelife generation. At first I was rather confused as I didn't know what this course entailed. As the sessions went on, it became clearer to me what it was about and I was learning something new each time. I can honestly say that I'm so happy I was one of the people chosen to have this experience and gain this qualification. We had to go to sessions every week for a certain period of time to learn about how to become a peer mentor. Each session got better and better as I got to know the people there. I had started to make friends with people I wasn't close with before. This gave me a chance to learn some socialising skills as we had to get very close very quickly. We had do to tasks where you would literally have to be holding hands with eachother while getting from one place to another. This required teamwork and in order for the teamwork to succeed we had to become comfortable around people

very easily. This was a very good skill to learn because there is times in life when you have to work with people you're not particularly close with. 

One of the best parts of the experience for me was meeting the two loveLife Generation trainers who were training us. Their names are Jasmine and Rukiyah. They both did such an amazing job at teaching us and keeping us entertained at the same time. I couldn't ask for better trainers because we had so much fun with them. They taught us all the skills we needed to know to become a good mentor and there was not one point in which I got bored at the sessions. We learnt so many skills that we would need in everyday life aswell and it was all down to the trainers. I'll forever be thankful for everything they taught me. 

I was always happy to go to the sessions because it took my mind off of the stress from school and it kept me relaxed throughout as there was always laughter going around the room. 

We learnt things like how to react in certain situations and how to reply in a certain way so that the mentee doesn't feel like they're being judged. We also learnt how to make people feel comfortable and how to get them to open up to you. The course also taught us boundaries and relationships that will be made with the mentee so that we known exactly where we stand with them. 

Mentoring was an amazing experience and I do recommend it to whoever's interested.

-By Nikita-Jade Mossman 

LLG in primary school

loveLife Generation have started to work in Central Park Primary School with two different programmes. Stand Up Speak UP focuses on using your voice and learning how to share your story through journalistic styles. The children created a television news report based on their work onBlack History Month and most recently wrote newspaper articles about the day when strong winds forced the school to evacuate.
The second programme Shine like a Star allows the children to gain confidene and encourages them to becom leaders.
We are really excited about our work in the school and look forward to working with other primary schools.

Mentoring

Mentoring 

Over the course of three months, LoveLife Generation worked closely with around twenty students, including myself, with the prospect of employing us with peer mentoring skills and actually mentoring Year 7s at Kingsford Community School.

We first underwent weekly sessions facilitated by Jasmine and Rukiyah whereby we were taught how to approach our mentee, exploring official introductions, the setting of boundaries, and allowing our mentee to work through to their own solution with the use of variety of question styles when appropriate, including; open, closed, probing and hypothetical questions. Once our training as mentors had been completed, we were ready to move onto mentoring younger children at Kingsford Community School, an opportunity that seemed both incredibly daunting yet exhilarating.

As a mentor, we had to adapt to real time situations; what if our mentee is introverted? What if our mentee says something that endangers someone? What if our mentee refuses to talk? Despite having been trained prior, it was a completely new experience when we physically sat down with our mentees. However, as the weeks progressed, we eventually managed to build bonds with our mentees, so much so that the mentees wanted to meet more often, which made the enthusiasm involved the most enjoyable aspect for me. Before each session, it felt refreshing to see that my peers, as well as our respective mentees, grew in joy through each session, shown through the finding that many of our mentees had grown a sense of independence and felt confident in their abilities to improve.

Sadly, due to exams approaching, we were not able to continue the sessions over an extended period of time, but in the time we experienced mentoring, we were able to build the confidence of our mentees sure enough to suffice further than our weekly meetings.

Overall, the experience of mentoring was equally fulfilling as it was eye-opening, as we were able to experience new outlooks towards handling situations.

– By Reiss Akhtar

UBUNTU - by Reiss

Ubuntu Workshop 

Ubuntu is defined as the essence of being human; stressing the importance of peace and interconnectedness meaning that humans cannot live in isolation.

Through LoveLife, a group of us had a day to experience a term foreign to us – Ubuntu. Although we had never heard of it before, we quickly had the opportunity to experience Ubuntu and apply it in everyday situations; as humans who cannot live in isolation, how would we share our abilities to be generous to one another and create peace rather than segregation? Through the use of different scenarios, such as how Ubuntu is around us, we explored aspects of Ubuntu in daily life through our personal selves; what places did we feel Ubuntu? How could we try to apply that, and what could we do in order to do so?

During this experience, I mostly enjoyed learning something new. I believe that positivity should be spread, and through the teaching of Ubuntu we were able to share the importance of that value amongst us and apply it to real life situations. Of course, the values of Ubuntu were not forced upon us. LoveLife had organised a full day session for those who wished to attend in order to discover the skills surrounding coaching, and the core value behind it was Ubuntu.

Rukiyah, who is a senior member of the Desmond Tutu Foundation, along with Jasmine, one of LoveLife’s main facilitators, shared her experiences of peace building and ensured that those values and ideas of the sharing of positivity were delivered to us with coherence, making it easy for us to apply Ubuntu to everyday situations.

To sum up, the experience of learning about Ubuntu was a great way to work closely with one another, despite most of us at LoveLife being from different backgrounds, and having the opportunity to find out that we all share similar values.

By Reiss 

Kingsford Year 10's take on Leadership For Change

Yet again we worked closely with Kingsford School to deliver the Leadership For Change programme to enable young people to discover their power to make change within themselves and in their shchool community.
The diverse year 10 participants took part in interactive workshops building confidence through exercises designed to test their trust and communication with each other. 
They aired some of their issues and through taking a different perspective and we were able to work through these so they are ready armed with positivity as they head into year 11. 
After 10 weeks they completed their youth challenge award and are set to take the next steps and become peer mentors to the upcoming Year 7s.

loveLife Generation training in Sweden - Moves 4 Ideas

loveLife Generation trainers, Jas and Rukiyah, delivered an innovative training in partnership

 with Swedish partners Moves 4 Ideas. The training was aimed at those who work within

 communities and young people and participants came from Spain, Belguim, Sweden and

 the UK. 

See below what UK participant Stephen Ihme had to say about the training course.

 http://tiggerrays.com/blog/m4i-european-union-training-review/

Training Review

Details

Moves 4 Innovative Ideas was a training course looking at facilitation techniques
 when working with  various groups of people. It looked at areas around
 inclusion, motivation, team building, and target  planning. I have had the
 opportunity to attend and organisation several EU training courses, all under

 the Youth In Action programme, which will change to Eurasmus + (link here)
. This post is a training 

review, providing an overview of programme and how it was delivered.

Name

Moves 4 Innovative Ideas

Date

18th – 27th June 2014

Map

Location

It was based just outside the small Swedish town of Mariannelund, on part of Lake Asjon. A beautifully 

serene and calming area surrounded by a thick tall tree forest. The training happened in a family built

 cabin on one side of the lake opposite a camp site which housed many of the participants. This meant

 that participants were able to enjoy a short walk around the lake when coming to and from the daily

 activities. A short video of the walk is on youtube.

Facilitation and Organisation

The training was organised by Moves4Ideas, a Swedish based community group. Funded by the

 European Union youth in action programme, M4I brought in loveLife Generation from the UK to facilitate

 the training. loveLife Generation have been long-term community partners of mine and it was a fantastic

 opportunity to experience their training from a participants point of view.

Physical representations of our hopes and fears.

What do you read from this line of letters?

Review

Overall the training course was noticeably different from previous ones I have attended, or organised. 

Noticeable for the small number of participants, 15 was the maximum number at any one time. This

 meant that I was able to spend more time getting to know individual people. Giving me the opportunity

 to get to know people better, and build stronger relationships.

The organisers made great use of the surrounding area and community in the programme. Giving me

 the opportunity to really experience the local culture. The programme was loose enough to allow for

 both sudden changes, and for participant lead activities to be planned and acted on. This provided 

a sense of ownership that normally only comes when you organise a training course like this.

Gallery

View stream on flickr

The facilitation by loveLife Generation was typically active and emotive. It provided an encouraging

 and comforting environment, so when participants were asked to step outside their comfort zone,

 by acting as animals for example. You felt empowered to engage in the activities. Facilitation was

 the buzz word, and leadership was a prominent element of the training programme.

A unique setting, with a small group of people, all exploring the ideas and practises of leadership

 made for a visual and sensual explosion. The training was educating and thought provoking, whilst

 always being fun and enjoyable. Overall, it was a memorable ten days that provided me with some 

excellent tools for tutoring, or facilitating training courses in the future. Congratulations and thanks 

should go to both Moves4Ideas, and Sofia Jagbrant for organising the training course, and to loveLife 

Generation (website link) for the training.