Mentoring Programs

This is a critical age group, facing issues such as bullying, gang initiations, teen violence, child abuse, grief and loss, drug abuse, and so much more. Some of the teens that we will be assisting have been moved around in the foster care system numerous times, and are still experiencing the trauma of having no family and lack of stability. Here at Safe Harbor International Ministries, we see the need to help. We provide mentoring support group services to this critical population.

Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, give them a sense of hope, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development and social and economic opportunity. Yet one in three young people will grow up without this critical asset. Here at Safe Harbor International Ministries our goal is to ensure that these young people will have this critical asset: a mentor.

Program Outcomes:

• Reduce teen domestic violence
• More likely to not get involved in gang activity
• 55% more likely to enroll in college
• 78% more likely to volunteer regularly
• 90% interested in becoming a mentor
• 130% more likely to hold leadership positions.

We focus on the following:

• How to fill out job applications
• How to fill out housing applications
• How to apply for a driver’s license
• Job prep skills
• How to balance a checkbook
• Budgeting
• How to open a savings account
• Teach the importance of saving
• Proper grooming habits
• Teach how to make doctor appointments and the importance of keeping appointments
• Safe sexual health habits
• Mental health issues
• Grief and loss issues
• Healthy eating habits and exercise
• Dream scrapbook
• How to start a business
• How to give back to their community (The Love Project)

Safe Harbor’s sister to sister mentoring program is developed to assist women, young and old, in navigating through the challenges of life. Women of all ages will be matched with positive role models, someone that can assist and help them maneuver through tough issues in life. There will be a screening process to assess the potential mentors to ensure that the mentee gets the best quality of service possible. The mentor has to commit to one full year of participating in the mentoring program. The mentors are professional or retired women who have proven to be successful in their field/careers and in life.

Safe Harbor’s mentoring program will assist men of all ages in navigating through the challenges of life. Men will be matched with positive role models, someone that can assist and help them maneuver through tough issues in life. There will be a screening process to assess the potential mentors to ensure that the mentee gets the best quality of service possible. The mentor has to commit to one full year of participating in the mentoring program. The mentors are professional or retired men who have proven to be successful in their field/careers and in life.

Safe Harbor will focus on building community partnerships and collaboration that can help reduce the rate of recidivism in the state of Georgia. They will partner with agencies that provide treatment, agencies that offer mentorship opportunities to ex-offenders, organizations that offer life skills, churches that can provide spiritual support, employers, law enforcement, and social service agencies. By building a community of partnerships and streamlining such services, we will not see the redundancy of services, but a team approach to alleviating gaps in services. These collaborative programs will help offenders transition back into society and assist in obtaining jobs ensuring that the individual can support their families once again. “If a man doesn’t work, how can he eat?”

Our goal is to reduce the reoffending rate in Georgia by creating a community of collaboration to help ex-offenders transition safely back into society by offering mentoring programs, job skills, job readiness training, spiritual support and guidance, and stable and legal job placement opportunities to released offenders. Other programs will include anger management, domestic violence intervention, and life skills. By providing these needed programs, Georgia will decrease its recidivism rate and ex-offenders will be more likely to hold down a steady job along with gaining lifelong skills that can help them make better choices for the future.