Pathways Mentoring
Pathways started at Inwood Academy, which expressed the need for many of their students to have caring adult mentors to encourage and support them in their journey through school and life circumstances. The target population is low-income Hispanic youth, mostly from first generation immigrant families, from the neighborhoods of Washington Heights, Inwood and the northwest Bronx. The program meets once a week, on Friday mornings, at the middle school. Many mentors and mentees get breakfast together on the way to school, and then the 45-minute time allows for fun development activities. High school mentors and mentees participate, or can opt to meet on their own, usually for breakfast as well.
In addition, mentors engage in activities with their mentees at least every other month. There is a fall and spring gathering of mentors, mentees and parents. For the past 6 summers we launched a summer youth employment initiative with a local partner for four to six of our mentees, in addition to getting any interested students signed up for the SYEP in the neighborhood. It has been noteworthy that 13 of our mentor-mentee pairs are in either their sixth or or more years of walking together. Hence, relationships of trust have developed along with opportunities to encourage and equip students to face their personal, family and educational challenges.
A Pathways mentor commits to a school year, for either Middle School or High School students.
James and Ish
James and Ish met in 2016, when Ish was in 7th grade. Ish was recommended for Pathways Mentoring for his anger issues, and the hope that mentoring would keep him on the right path. It took a few years for James to build trust with Ish, over getting breakfasts together, meeting each other’s families, and of course the Friday mornings.
When Ish was a sophomore, the relationship deepened, and Ish shared a lot more about his life, his family, his dreams, and his anxiety over the future. James and Ish connected over after school activities, including football games, sporting events, trips with Young Life, and more. James helped Ish get a summer job at The Love Kitchen, and Ish discovered how much he liked helping and serving people.
Ish did well in school, and graduated high school, and James was there for the celebration. He tried a year of college, but didn’t enjoy it. James encouraged him to think about how to build a career on service, and eventually, Ish enlisted in the army, where he hopes to learn skills that will enable him to be a paramedic.
James and Ish text, see each other at events, and continue a great friendship, despite the distance, and Ish’s family’s relocation to New Jersey.
Dew and Isabel
Everyone who interacted with Isabel knew about her feisty demeanor. It wasn’t clear if Isabel was intentionally disrespectful in her language and attitude, but that’s how it came across to all. The school encouraged her and her mother to sign up for Pathways mentoring, where they met Dew. Dew loved Isabel’s personality right away, and their relationship took off instantly.
Now, Isabel is known for being cooperative and helpful. She is participating in a number of new activities, including some afterschool sports, and even camping! Most NYC kids have no idea about camping in the woods, but Dew planned the whole event involving Isabel, making decisions about what to eat, where to go, and all timing, and they had a blast!
Dew has attended parent events with Isabel’s mom, and seems to be around the school a lot. In fact, Dew encouraged the mom to sign up Isabel’s brother in Pathways as well, and so her brother has a mentor now too.
Robbie and Franklin
Franklin started school and showed signs of being fretful, and filled with fear, and so the school recommended him for the Pathways program, believing that a “big brother” would help him and build his social skills. Robbie liked Franklin right away and got to work on establishing trust and showing Franklin that he would be stable in the relationship. The Friday mornings, the breakfasts, and even things like getting him a special branded winter coat helped tremendously.
After a year, the relationship was deepening, and Franklin was showing positive changes. But some underlying fears still had a grip on Franklin, such that he didn’t want to tell anyone that his basketball team had made it to the championship game. A coach in the MBCY league alerted Robbie, and he came to the game without telling Franklin so as to not trigger anxiety, and was able to celebrate with Franklin afterwards. In fact, Robbie then started coaching at MBCY, to spend more time with Franklin!
Robbie also celebrated at Franklin’s 8th grade graduation, and many seeing that relationship were impressed, and also impressed with Franklin’s growing confidence. Now in HS, Franklin is doing very well, and he and Robbie continue to have a great time with each other.