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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-30 Daily Xml
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MENTORING EP

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (16:17): Today I rise to talk about an event which I will be attending this evening, the 2012 Positive Ageing Awards; it is part of the Every Generation Festival. I am particularly pleased to be attending tonight because one of the finalists in the Every Generation Intergenerational Award is a program called Mentoring EP, which is based in Port Lincoln and rolled out across the educational facilities there. The award is sponsored by SA Health, and it recognises programs in which both older and younger people participate. This is particularly so with Mentoring EP. I would like to acknowledge Mr Garry Downey and his efforts in establishing this program. In fact, he is here today and I am very pleased he has sat patiently in the gallery for this moment. I look forward to joining him tonight at this evening's event, and I wish Mentoring EP well.

About 350 people are attending tonight, and we are pleased to be a part of that. I am also particularly pleased to be representing Mentoring EP, because I was thrilled sometime ago to be asked to be patron of this particular program. I was pleased to be able to do that and to take part in just a small way in this program. It is a relatively new organisation. It was formed in 2009, and they provide community partners, individuals and businesses with support in youth mentoring in Port Lincoln and other parts of Eyre Peninsula.

It came about because existing mentoring programs at Port Lincoln High School, West Coast Youth and four local primary schools were brought together. The collaboration has grown. The number of active community mentors began at approximately 30 in 2009, and it is up to over 90 supporting mentors, with around 100 local young people as mentees. One of the best aspects of their mentoring activities is the diverse range in all ages and skills of the volunteer mentors. They are all volunteers, and it is a wonderful thing to see all that vast resource of experience and skill come together and be shared with those younger members of our community—that great wealth of experience.

Interestingly, we also have about a 50-50 split between male and female mentors, which is always nice to have, and the children appreciate having a same-sex mentoring sometimes. The experience that older people can impart on younger people in country communities is vital for the career development and ongoing work and education opportunities for the youth in places such as Port Lincoln and the Eyre Peninsula more broadly. That is at the heart of what Mentoring EP is all about.

The recognition tonight will probably be for the older mentors, but it is clear to me that it gives them a real sense of worth and achievement in having a genuine, positive impact on the lives of those young people whom they are mentoring. Often, mentoring takes place in a very informal way, but through this program we were able to formalise that mentoring process and really get some commitment from both the mentors and the mentees. Mentees is not a word that I was familiar with, but apparently those who are mentored are in fact mentees. Good luck to all of them.

Often, they are students who are in their last year or two of school and are confronted with all the challenges that go along with finishing school—finishing SACE, stepping out into the workforce, going into apprenticeships, or going off to uni—which people with experience can help guide them through. But it is not just those students who are finding difficulty with those areas; it is also about mentoring and challenging those really talented students as well.

My congratulations go to the program. I wish them well in the coming year. I understand the funding streams could change direction. That brings with it some challenges, but I know the schools have been supportive thus far and have benefited from the program thus far, and that with the support of those schools the program will be able to continue under the stewardship of convenor Gary Downey and his committee, some of whom will be joining us tonight. Congratulations to all involved. Well done, and I am very proud to be a part of this program.

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