ECHO Youth Services last year celebrated its 30-year anniversary.
The mentoring program has been running for 15 years in conjunction with Emerald Secondary College, connecting young people, who have disconnected from school, with a member of the community.
This not only allows the young people to develop a positive adult relationship, but also to create a positive attitude towards young people in the community.
The mentoring program, which is funded by the Victorian Government, runs for 24 weeks, where the mentor and student will meet once a week for at least an hour and work on a project together.
This project can be anything the student and mentor both have an interest in.
In previous years, projects have consisted of scrapbooking about their time spent together, building robots and 4 cylinder engines.
Also, interests such as shopping, and designing a book of all the different outfits they liked and how it fits into a budget, as well as designing and making a backpack.
While some of the projects seem simple, they are actually teaching a young person a valuable skill like budgeting and how to stick to one, or using a measuring tape and improving their mathematical skills in the process.
The purpose of the project is not only to allow the young person to accomplish something of significance, but to give them a new skill, as well as giving the student and mentor something to talk about as they build the relationship.
At the end of the 24 weeks, there is a huge celebration ceremony where the young people and mentors showcase their projects to friends, teachers, local MPs and their families.
It is an incredible night, filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment.
