DATELINE:  MARSHFIELD, MA…

Mary, a recent graduate of Marshfield High School, volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield for four years before becoming a Staff Member.   In countless ways, she has made a difference in the lives of members and at the club itself.

Over the years, Mary has worn many hats, from Program Assistant to the Treasurer of the Keystone Club, where she planned and implemented club activities.  Mary also served as a tutor in the Power Hour program and as a mentor in the Go Girl Go program.  

Although her commitment to the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield kept her busy, Mary was very involved in school activities as well.  A member of the National Honor Society, Mary served as captain of the Varsity Swim Team and as Vice President of the High School Key Club.  In her spare time, she worked as a swim instructor. 

Mary is now a freshman at Bridgewater State College studying for a degree in elementary education with a minor in social work.

“The Boys and Girls Club youth have truly benefited from Mary’s influence.  She has amazing character and real leadership ability.  We’re delighted to honor Mary as our ‘Youth of the Year’ and we wish her every success in the future,” noted Greg Jackson, the club’s Executive Director.

About the Boys and Girls Club

The Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield’s purpose is to establish a safe haven for recreation, which includes a variety of supervised activities for greater than 4,000 youths (between the ages of 6 to 18 years old) within the town.  The Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield has five Core Areas:  Character and Leadership; Education and Career; Health, Sport Fitness Recreation and Life Skills; The Arts; and Technology.  These Core Areas serve as the foundation for all programming.

As a privately-funded, non-profit organization, the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield relies tremendously on the generous philanthropic support of individuals.  Financial gifts assist in providing the financial strength necessary to continue the club’s mission “to enable and inspire all young people to realize their full potential as productive and responsible citizens, as well as become tomorrow’s capable leaders.”

For more information about the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield, please contact (781) 834-CLUB (2582) or visit the website at www.MarshfieldBoysAndGirlsClub.com” target=”_blank”>www.MarshfieldBoysAndGirlsClub.com”>www.MarshfieldBoysAndGirlsClub.com or write to the club at P.O. Box 311, Marshfield, MA  02050.

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Spirituality, and Naturopathy to people have attracted global attention. He is at present in NJ, USA and conducting regular classes, Seminars, Workshops, Intensive Meditation, and other specialized programs for seniors, Youth, Corporate executives. He is the Chief Mentor of SHREYAS an institution devoted for Authentic Yoga and Allied sciences. He is contemplating an art of the center in USA for Yoga Education, Training, Research in NJ , NY and CA. He may be invited for Individual/ …

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All parents hope that their children will grow up healthy, happy, and productive. They aspire to have children who have the skills to contribute to their own well-being and to the well-being of their families and community. There is no magic bullet for developing these capacities in children. Literally thousands of programs have been developed to support families in their efforts to help children to become competent, confident, caring young people who have positive social connections and good characters.

Children have the potential to succeed in life and contribute to society. However, not all children get the support they need to thrive. By all estimates, an astounding 17.6 million young people – nearly half the population between 10 and 18 years of age – live in situations that put them at risk of not living up to their potential. Without immediate intervention by caring adults, they could make choices that undermine their futures. The presence of caring adults offering support, advice, friendship, reinforcement and constructive examples has proved to be powerful tools for helping young people fulfill their potential.

Mentoring is a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support and encouragement aimed at developing the competence and character of the mentee. A mentor is an adult who, along with the parents, help young people bring out strengths that are already there. They are good listeners, compassionate and teach children how to live an honorable life. A mentor is not a foster parent, therapist, parole officer, or cool peer. The role of a mentor is not to “fix” young people but rather to help them achieve their full potential. Enforcing competence, confidence, connection, character, caring, and contribution to self and society, help develop a child into a productive and respectful adult in later years.

A mentor’s main purpose is to help a young person define individual goals and find ways to achieve them. Since the expectations of each child will vary, the mentor’s job is to encourage the development of a flexible relationship that responds to the young person’s needs. Using influence and resources as a decision maker, adults can bring new hope to young lives through the power of mentoring. A mentor encourages positive choices, promotes high self-esteem, teaches respect for oneself and family, supports academic achievement, and introduces the young person to new ideas. Youth who meet regularly with their mentors are 46% less likely than their peers to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking alcohol (Public/Private Ventures study of Big Brothers Big Sisters). About 40% of teenager’s waking hours are spent without any companionship or supervision. Mentors provide children and teens with a valuable place to spend free time. Children learn to make thoughtful choices, fulfill their commitments, acknowledge their mistakes and account for their actions. By taking control of their lives, children realize they can achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.

I encourage you to think of the mentors in your own life – a coach, teacher, or another caring adult, and take a few minutes to consider all the contributions they have made in your life during your developing years. I know throughout my own adult life and business career, I have been greatly rewarded by years of mentoring children and young adults into productive, happy individuals that are successful in life. Children need someone to believe in them. Often times, children lack the attention needed to reinforce morals, values and self esteem on a daily basis. It makes all the difference in the world during times of indecision in their lives to have that reinforcement. Mentoring develops children into young adults who have confidence, determination and self-awareness.

Mentoring is recognized throughout the US as an important part of a child’s life and some states have already proposed legislation to the Senate. The Coalition of State Mentoring Partnerships has worked closely with Capitol Hill staff and Senators to advocate this legislation. The Mentoring for All Act 2008 (S. 3200) is one of the most significant legislation actions to benefit mentoring. Please call; send emails or letters to your Senators urging support for the bill.

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Today the world has lost a friend, a brother, a son, a youth minister, a musician, a mentor, a world changer and a man of God. It is with much sadness we announce that Steven Bobo Burns is no longer with us. His love of people touched hundreds if not thousands of lives. Bobo, you will be missed. This is a video of Bobo the last time he did the boogaloo at Summer Festival in 2008.

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Denise Dema is a Business and Life Management Coach who has over 20 years experience empowering individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional & personal lives. To learn more about the author and her practice please visit http://www.denisedema.com

Juniper Networks and IBM announced that they would continue to expand their relationship through joint technology solutions.

It is as if IBM has put itself to the task of  mentoring the younger and more inexperienced Juniper Networks.  IBM has the unique credential of being an IT company that can anchor its roots back in the 19th century.  The company has gone through a great depression (perhaps more than one) and  two world wars.   Juniper was formed in 1996 and still has much to learn about the information technology space.  As a mentor, perhaps IBM can not only advise the younger company but also build its stock through tried-and-true IT standards.

On the flip side of the coin, Juniper can provide a youthful and cutting-edge standard to IBM’s hardware.  Juniper will also add more flexibility to IBM customers through additional measures of IT service and security.

From Yahoo Finance News:  “IBM and Juniper share a common vision to continually evolve information infrastructures as a strategic element of business success, and together, we are committed to delivering superior networking solutions to customers,” said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager, Ethernet Platforms Business Group, Juniper Networks.  “We’ve been very pleased with our progress to-date with IBM in our seven collaborative solutions and shared sales goals, especially in the data center. As we look to the next phase of our relationship, we remain focused on delivering optimal joint infrastructure solutions for our customers.”

Juniper and IBM have collaborated extensively to provide customers ethernet switches and routers, as well as more recently highlighting enterprise technologies that allow companies to extend ‘private data-center clouds.’    IBM primarily acts as a systems integrator for various Juniper switching, routing and security products.

“Juniper is an important supplier of networking products,” said Jim Comfort, IBM vice president, enterprise initiatives. “IBM is already a reseller of Juniper’s Ethernet switches and routers, and we continue to look for opportunities to expand this relationship to provide increasing choice for our customers and the flexibility to support their dynamic infrastructure needs.”

Although Juniper and IBM have been partners since 2007, they more recently have begun collaborating on several high-tech projects that could only come out of the collective resources of the two companies.    One such endeavor is called the ‘Stratus Project’, which has the goal of building a cutting-edge data center with superior performance and the flexibility to support virtual environment.

The two companies also have a priority to work on security measures for cloud computing environments.  As more data moves ‘into the cloud’, the possibility of attacks on corporate and personal information becomes a very likely situation.  Ideally, the brainpower of the two corporations will be able to shield users and companies from this sort of cloud security breach.

At the base level however, Juniper and IBM is a great partnership because it has created a well-crafted line of standard network hardware products.  Whether it be new, pre owned or used juniper routers or switches IBM’s input into the equation adds a level of integrity, confidence, and quality that would otherwise be unattainable.

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… Non-for-profit Non-profit Youth Kids Mentor Police Cops Computer Computers Volunteer

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Times are hard for the American currently. My goal is to start a conversation about how we can use eachother’s knowledge to better our lives and country. Now is the time for us to stand together, and the internet is the perfect vehicle for us to traverse this difficult path and emerge to a bright new era.

Copyright (c) 2008 Justin Sachs

When you consider retiring from your business and handing it down to someone new and young, do you get nervous? This is a very common issue with business owners who consider passing their business down to a more youthful employee. Many youthful citizens have a tendency to be rebellious and very disobedient. This isn’t something all that new, but the numbers regarding this type of behavior seem to be increasing at an alarming rate. Maybe this is a sign that America’s schools aren’t quite doing their job. Maybe it’s just because the adults in children’s lives aren’t teaching them how to become responsible leaders. It is a very important thing for the youth of our nation to learn to be leaders and to start to plan for a successful future.

If we do not try to help our next generation of leaders, it could lead to disaster. There has been increasingly large numbers of young adults and this rise is projected to continue through at least the year 2015. With most of these young adults only having the attention span of a thirty second commercial and thinking that they already “know everything”, could they have a positive impact on the future workforce? Is there a way to prepare for the worst?

It is possible that if the workforce started to plan ahead for future generations of workers, started to teach, show, and even model the way for the next generation, it could build up confidence among the youth that is just entering the marketplace. By finding out more about current youth leadership research and studies and doing things like sitting down and having discussions with youth advocates, we might be able to find a way to stimulate youth leadership as well as produce a productive group of new workers.

Many young people need to have good examples to follow. Positive role models could be the key to success for when the next generation of people enter the workforce. For example, a young person sees an individual who seems to make a lot of money and appears to lead a great life. Later on, they may work to meet that goal and discover that it isn’t as great as it looked from the outside. No one took the time to lead this young person and he chose to follow. His unhappiness and disappointment in his own life may have been different if someone showed him how to lead instead of follow. It is so important for young workers to become great leaders and not followers.

Accepting young people into the workforce in order to learn all about the business they’re getting into and letting them shadow those with more experience may help. Sometimes taking an interest in an individual who may be on a dangerous path and giving him a second chance by teaching him the importance and rewards of hard work, you can have a positive impact on his life. Lead him and help him become a leader. Starting a program in your business or the business you work in to apprentice or hire some of these younger people can ultimately lead to structure in their current lives and success in their futures. You could teach them how to succeed.

If you are lucky enough and your company already has a program of that sort, you might be able to donate your time by mentoring. You might even be able to realize that it is a very important part of youth development. If the proper steps are taken, maybe this generation of youth will become a new breed of leaders that can handle the constantly changing world around them.

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A look at how a youth mentoring centers help turn around a young man’s life

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Justin Sachs, author of Your Mailbox Is Full- Motivating Today’s Teens a book which gives teenagers the life-skills and leadership development principles they need to be successful in school and throughout their lives. His products, coaching and speaking services are available on his website at http://www.JustinSachsOnline.com

There are many valuable youth baseball conditioning techniques to increase your players’ abilities by maximizing their strength, range of motion, and flexibility. Just as a car can only travel as fast as its engine will allow, in like manner, baseball players can only perform to the degree that their bodies will allow. If coaches, parents and mentors ensure that their players are involved in recommended youth baseball conditioning training, they will be increasing their players’ chances to fulfil their maximum potential.

Here are some advised youth baseball conditioning techniques that are recommended for youth baseball coaches for the development of their players:

• Pitching Better through Swimming - Swimming can actually strengthen the shoulder muscles and enable pitchers to throw the baseball harder while protecting pitchers from devastating shoulder injuries. It is recommended that pitchers swim in free style for two minutes with a series of 4 repetitions. If the player can not swim, then the pitcher can stand waist deep in water under adult supervision and push the water away from the body with a hard thrust and fingers spread apart. This should be repeated for 2 minutes at a time.

• Sprint to Success - One of the traditional youth baseball training programs remains the best. Players need to build up their endurance in order to play the entire game with strength and energy. Wind sprints are the best way for youth baseball players to build up their endurance and, at the same time, bond with their teammates. If your players run wind sprints as a team or in bunches, such as pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders, you will be building up their endurance and the team will become closer as a unit. Ten 60 yard sprints are a good way to start, and you can lengthen the distance and repetitions over time.

• Squeeze that Ball - Another simple youth baseball conditioning exercise can be done everywhere from the ball field to the schoolyard and even to bed. Baseball players can increase their wrist strength by squeezing a rubber Spalding ball. Yes, these pink balls are still of infinite value to baseball players – pitchers, to increase the speed of their pitch; hitters by increasing their bat speed and, therefore, the distance of their drives; and fielders by increasing the strength of their throws.

• Stretch Before Games – Stretching and warm-ups are a key element of baseball conditioning training protocols to prevent injuries. Prior to every game and practice, baseball coaches should lead their team in a regular series of stretching and warm-up exercises for at least 10-12 minutes. Before the players begin playing baseball, make sure to cover all major muscle groups including shoulders, legs, arms, hips, and back.

Of course these are just a few, simple youth baseball conditioning exercises among many. Baseball coaches should be familiar with a wide variety of exercises and should weave these into a more holistic conditioning training plan that is appropriate to the age of their players.

Combined with a variety of baseball drills that make the game fun and build the fundamental skills needed to play, a strong baseball conditioning training regimen will ensure that players reach the top of their game and avoid unnecessary injury.

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Now in its fourth year, the Red Sox Mentoring Challenge is an initiative designed to recruit more mentors in MA and refer them to official campaign partner mentoring programs in the Mass Mentoring Partnership network.

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By Trevor Sumner who works for Weplay.com, a  youth baseball community dedicated to providing parents, coaches and athletes the tools and information they need to celebrate the love of the game.  Weplay has one of the most comprehensive baseball drill libraries in its active baseball community.

I think those who are interested in coaching youth football are admirable. Not only do you get to teach kids football fundamentals; but you teach them well-documented life lessons and become an example and mentor. A youth football coach’s responsibility is to instill quality values such as confidence, discipline, sportsmanship, and teamwork. Applying these values to the game of football will help you to produce winners on and off the field. Here are a couple simple tips to focus on as you approach your first time coaching youth football.

Youth Football Coaching Strategies

• Rules – Set the ground rules for the players and their parents at the start of the season. Be clear on the rules for practices, attendance, player participation, fundraising, effort, and sportsmanship. That way everyone knows what to expect and there are no surprises during the season.

• Time Management – You have the football field for a limited amount of time. Don’t waste it performing extensive conditioning drills. Use the time wisely and teach “real” football during these sessions. You want kids to have fun and learn the game. That’s what they signed up for…they can run conditioning and agility drills any time.
• Drills – Yes, you need to run conditioning drills but limit them in your practice. You should be teaching your kids life skills such as developing the discipline to work out and perform interval training on their own. Develop the child’s love of the game first, but keep them accountable.

  Moreover, there are many elaborate football drill libraries on the Internet such as those at Weplay. While a coach should select a variety of age-appropriate drills for coaching his team, focusing on these basics and making them fun for the team will often lead to greater success.

• Morale – End your practices on a high note. Too many coaches run sprints or laps at the end of the practice and the players dislike them. Instead, run special team drills such as kickoff returns or punt coverage for your end-of-practice conditioning drills. You’ll get them in top shape while making it fun and teaching valuable football skills at the same time.
• Playbook – In youth football, its better to run a few plays really well than run many plays poorly. Pick four or five plays as the core of your offensive strategy and practice the execution until the players can run them in their sleep. Only then, should you start introducing new plays.

With a focus on some simple basics, youth football coaches can successfully start down their path. By teaching youth football and the life lessons of discipline, self-motivation, sportsmanship and fair play, a coach’s experience can be both enjoyable and meaningful. The integrity that you insist they use on the field will follow them off the field.

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A short film from Everett Dance Theatre’s mentor program. … everett dance theatre theater film poetry mentor mentors youth Providence RI Rhode Island carriage house

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survey would target urban youth (multi – cultural). any suggestions?
thanks Parker

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By Trevor Sumner who works for Weplay.com, a youth football community dedicated to providing parents coaches and athletes the tools and information to celebrate the love of the game. Weplay.com has one of the most comprehensive, free football drill libraries in its active football community.

A 42 game schedule for 9-10 year olds! Tournaments every Saturday and Sunday where 9-10 year olds play 3 games on each day with 20 minute halves!

Did your jaw drop at these revelations? It should. These are 9 & 10 year olds playing in a tournament league, in games that are longer than 32 minute high school games and in a schedule that would test any college team.

I just moved to Oregon and in talking with an acquaintance here learned that his ex-wife just signed their son up to play in the league described above. A couple of questions came immediately to mind—no, make that numerous questions.

1. Is this schedule for the adults or the kids?
2. Do the parents realize that all day, each Saturday & Sunday, all they are going to do is sit waiting for the next game?
3. Would any sane high school coach allow their players to play in three games in one day? In fact, the rule book will not allow it.
4. Twenty minute halves—that means a 40 minute game, even if it is a running clock. High school games are 32 minutes.
5. 42 games in a season! Colleges may play 45 games over a 4 month period.

I have written many times in my articles about youth sports being for the youth—not for the adults! Here is a quote from an article I wrote earlier this year: “Youth basketball is for the youth. A child must be allowed to be a child. They should be allowed to have fun with learning and playing the game and experience the joy.”

Young players have so much pressure placed on them to participate, and often to win in sports, that is just unnatural for kids to be subjected to. Add the expectations of parents and coaches to this mix and we’ve eliminated much of what being a kid is all about. With all the angst causing things coming at them, from every direction, related to school, clubs and other activities—now add all this time a kid has to be a kid being tied up in a tournament every weekend. (Oh, I forgot to mention—these teams also practice 3 times a week.)

Where were the sane and clear thinking adults while all this was being planned and passed into action? Didn’t anyone involved stop to think of what injuries can be inflicted upon developing young bodies from all this over-vigorous activity? Didn’t anyone care? There are many precedents for how to set up and run a youth sports program that is for the youth’s enjoyment and safe physical development. Obviously, these kinds of programs were never looked at, or if they were, they were dismissed.

This is so much of what is wrong about youth sports in today’s society. We have been bombarded with sexual abuse issues, anger issues, and over-reaching programs and schedules like the one I describe here, plus sports burn-out at an early age.

When will the parents wake up fully to the fact that these types of programs are not in the best interests of the kids they so willingly put at risk. What tragedy must befall some unsuspecting child in order to awaken adults to the injustice of what they are pushing at their kids?

Unfortunately, just about every kind of tragedy one could imagine in youth sports has already occurred. Because of these, many organizations and communities have recognized the horrors of youth sports and taken wonderful remedial steps toward offering programs that have helped to bring joy, wonder and FUN to their youthful participants. For the rest, what will it take before the realization dawns on them of the harm that is being visited on today’s youth and the repercussions that will be brought forward in the future as these kids mature?

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Mass Mentoring Partnership, the Massachusetts umbrella organization for youth mentoring, is working with Bank of America to launch a statewide (in MA) initiative to engage BOA employees in youth mentoring. Here, BOA Massachusetts President Bob Gallery introduces the initiative at a forum with BOA employees in Boston.

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How would you collect donations in these hard times for a cause you really care about.

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Coach Ronn Wyckoff is an international spokesperson for youth sports being for the youth and the author/producer of 28 e-book and videos, including the 4-hr. instructional DVD, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”.
Coach Ronn’s more than fifty years of playing and coaching basketball, and being a coaching consultant, uniquely qualify him to teach coaches how to teach basketball and players to play better basketball. His programs have reached hundreds of coaches and players around the world with his simple yet highly detailed teaching methods. More can be learned about Coach Ronn and his programs at his website http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Child mentorship programs are activities that prove to be beneficial not only for children but also for the adults who mentor them. The program aims for both to learn from one another in terms of life skills, values and character development. A mentorship program pairs adult mentors with young people in order to offer support, advice, friendship, reinforcement and lead through constructive examples in order to help young people achieve their full potential, succeed in life and contribute to the betterment of society. Child mentorship programs are in place nationwide and locally, in communities all over the world.  Below are examples of established mentorship programs in the United States:

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership-is a federally funded mentorship support program for mentoring partnerships throughout the United States. The program helps build much-needed infrastructure at the state level to help mentorship centrals. It also leverages leadership and knowledge through the National Mentoring Institute.

America’s Promise, The Alliance for Youth-Founded in 1997 with General Colin Powell as Chairman and chaired today by Alma Powell, America’s Promise Alliance is a cross-sector partnership of more than 300 corporations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and advocacy groups that are passionate about improving lives and changing outcomes for children. Their work aims to raise awareness, encouraging action and engaging in advocacy to provide children the key supports called the Five Promises: Caring adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, An Effective Education and Opportunities to Help Others.

Big Brothers and Sisters in America-Big Brothers Big Sisters is the oldest, largest and most effective youth mentoring organization in the United States. They have dominated in one-to-one youth service for more than a century, developing positive relationships that have a direct and lasting impact on the lives of young people.

Marketing and promotion of these mentorship programs present challenges given limited funds and busy lives of a community. Given this situation, the use of small print materials can be simple but effective means to spread awareness. Print materials today can easily be printed using online printing services. Some online printers such as Uprinting for example, can also be found in web resources such as Wikipedia and Yelp.

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Coach Fewing is a teacher, mentor, father figure to players from ages three to adult. He doesn’t just coach and teach the player but the whole person. Fewing is about helping thousands of kids develop life skills such as respect, generosity, teamwork, loyalty and collaboration that can be utilized in any arena, be it school, work, family or the community. In addition, Fewing believes that a positive attitude is everything. When one asks a camper how they are doing today, a hearty “Absolutley …

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Nikki Sabato is a writer with a background in landscape architecture and design. She currently works in the field of marketing and design communication.

The call for the scapping of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), established in 1973 by the Gowon led administration, has gained momentum since the murder of Corper Leke Akande during the recent Jos, Plateau State crisis. In fact, the call has assumed global dimension with a Facebook.com campaign tagged “JUSTICE FOR LEKE AKANDE/ SCRAP NYSC”. But the question that many of the scheme’s antagonists have not paused to consider is: whether the the cure for the headache is the severance of the head?

These critics who will stop at nothing but see an end to the scheme have harped their condemnation on several reasons, but for the sake of space, I shall examine four. The first is the poor state of the orientation camp. The second is the rejection of the corps members at the place of primary assignment. The third is the paltry allowance (or is it salary?) that corps members are paid. Fourthly is the conclusive argument that the scheme no more promotes the unity it was set out to promote for Nigerians are more sharply divided now as they were at independence. Like I mooted earlier, the reasons are many but the above are the ‘Top-Four’ of the reasons being put forth by the antagonist of the scheme. However, as seemingly logical and ‘constructive’ as the reasons are, they are spurious and defies the laws of sound ratiocination and are therefore subjectively myopic, selfish and highly unpatriotic. The ground-norm of my objection however is the Yoruba proverb which says “ Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo”, that is ‘the cure of an headache is not the severance of the head’.

For the avoidance of any doubt, let me make it clear that I was a corps member some few years ago. I served among the Kuteb people of Ussa Local Government Area of Taraba State. Like every other corps members I have to participate in the scheme because it is mandatory for every Nigerian fresh graduate of universities and polytechnics who are under the age of thirty years. But unlike most of them, I was willing to serve in any part of the country. Indeed, I had a glimpse of the other side of life realities in other parts of Nigeria compared to what I thought life was as a South-westerner. For the first time in my life I have a feel of what it takes to live in the stone-age in a science driven twenty-first century. Kpambo, the village I served in, and indeed the whole local government, was without electricity, pipe-borne water, good road network, no hospitals but ill-equipped and ill-staffed maternity center, and a host of other lacks anyone could think of. Here was where I spent close to ten months of my life teaching English language to the future leaders of the Kuteb Kingdom, a kingdom that is always in strife with other tribes such as the Jukuns and the Tivs. If not for the NYSC, I would not have believed that there are sixteen and eighteen year olds who have never seen a condom in their life; young persons who have never seen a computer before and who do not have any knowledge of existing profession apart from Teachers and Doctors, may be Lawyer. It was really hectic teaching, counseling and mentoring both on career and HIV/AIDS as a UNICEF/NYSC Adolescent Reproductive Health (the protem Coordinator for the whole Taraba State).
Before anyone starts to think that I have not tasted the beautiful side of life, let me quickly add here that prior to my service year, I had visited over four European countries, namely, Norway, Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium as well as such African capitals as Kampala, Uganda and Accra, Ghana.

Now that I have given you a glimpse into my background, let me veer away from further digression. At this juncture, I will like to address the four major/popular reasons being put forth by the protagonists of the NYSC scheme.

To start with, the poor state of the orientation camps ought not to be an issue at all! The NYSC scheme being part of the Nigerian society which has an appreciable rate of poverty that fluctuates between 50 and 70% cannot be expected to be exceptional. It is part of a poverty-inflicted order. A reflection of the dearth of the basics that ‘wines and dines’ with majority of Nigerians. What need to be done to remedy this is to encourage prudence and diligence on the part of camp/state coordinator and seriously clamour for the support and cooperation of the various state governors. In the ‘good old days’ as some persons are akin to easily say and making us to believe, there may be plenty to eat and drink at the camp and a ready made job on completion but these persons have forgotten that corruption then was at the lowest ebb unlike today that it is commonplace. Again, corps members must not be seeking for comfort where they can’t find it. The orientation camps ought to be a place to build enduring life changing traits. No one stops corps members from taking a mosquito treated net to the camp and none stops them from seeking for food option at their respective camps’ ‘mammy markets’. The solution to this problem is to send the anti-graft men after the corrupt state coordinators and also urge state governments to take care of corps members posted to their states.

In addressing the issues of corps members rejection, let me quickly note that most of the cases of rejections were self-inflicted. I will explain. It no news that majority of corps members never wanted to serve in the villages but in the cities. In fact, some of the prospective corps members that are connected, who do not qualify for concessional postings usually get posted to their choice State; not satisfied they usually take a step further to lobby to stay in the cities. This usually creates tension in the posting of corps members as the lobbyist groups have to share the available spaces in the cities with the talented (mostly sportsmen and others) and the lucky ones who are specifically requested based on the quality of degree by various establishments. Fierce and intense lobbying surfaces and creates M4P (money for posting), S4P (sex for posting) and F4P (favour for posting) phenomenon. At the end of the whole exercise, which usually entails officials posting more than the requested to many companies and industries, the population of corps members in the cities becomes overblown and surplus to required. In a nutshell, rejection is a vocabulary in the cities, and among the city-maniac corps members, not in the villages where the corps members are needed most. The solution to this is simple: If they are rejected in the cities, let them go to the villages where they are most needed, simple as ABC!

Concerning the unnecessary lamentations over ‘allowee’ as the corps members often call the NYSC allowance, I can’t understand the reason for the outcry. From my own dictionary, an allowance is never a salary; likewise a salary is never an allowance. Is it? So, what the corps members are to be paid is never meant to enable them buy houses and cars, but to enable them survive. (In fact, most past village corps members know that the so called ‘pittance’ is enough to eat, cloth and have some savings to take home). If the critics want to push for salary for corps members, they are free to do so. But if they are still bent on clamouring to increment of allowance, they will continue to put a square peg in a round hole. I will waste time no more on this. Let’s let allowee be allowee and salary be salary. Chikena!

In a similar vein, the argument that the scheme no more builds bridges across ethno-religious differences is likewise baseless. I make bold to say that till date am still in touch with countless persons I met during my service year: Abershi, Rimamskep, Uruku, Ajinus, James, Tunde (Kwesati), Tunde (Fikyu), Adeola (Rufu) and a host of others. These are persons that have a totally different background, culture, beliefs, orientation, etc from mine but linked together by the NYSC. These persons have being of immense help to me, and I to some of them, since I completed my youth service.

Such programme as this is not peculiar to Nigeria as countries such as Norway, Germany, Ghana, and some other operate similar programme, some with the same length and some shorter. But they are all directed at building young persons’ endurance and strength in facing the challenges of years ahead and in case of “incasity” (the discerning knows what I meant by this). In fact, it has been a very useful experience for some ex-corps members who have to stay for years without a job (those that belongs to the Now Your Suffering Continues group!)

Although I sincerely commiserate with the family of the deceased corp members, including Leke Akande, who like soldiers, and many other patrotic Nigerians, lost their lives in the service of fatherland. Yet, I do not subscribe to the current call for the scrapping of the programme, harping it on the death of these young Nigerians. NYSC, as I see it, is nothing, but an opportunity to explore the Nigeria’s unique diversities in our unity. To have a better understanding of these diversities is to be knowledgeable enough to appreciate the need for us to remain one big different peoples with history bonded future. What we need is not to throw the baby with the bath water, or kill the scheme, but rather overhaul and stem the corruption tide that is fast sinking the scheme. Again, we could look into a means of making the scheme to be shorter, say six months, so as to make life more meaningful at the orientation camps and make for spaces at various companies and industries for prospective corps members.

Onward!

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Yemi Ademowo Johnson, socio-political philosopher and applied anthropologist, is the Editor, YouthSpeak!, Belgium.

Teenagers are facing the most critical stage in their life – adolescence. At this stage, they experience the transition from childhood towards adulthood; in the process of transition, teens deal with lots of biological, emotional, social and psychological changes. Often, these changes make a life of a teenager miserable. There is a great desire to fit in, to be accepted for who they are, to find their true identity, and to realize their own strengths and weaknesses. This is where peer mentoring becomes a lot of help. It keeps the youth guided and makes them feel loved, cared for and accepted.

Features and of a Peer Mentoring Program

Peer mentoring is a kind of mentoring program, which matches older youths with younger ones. The former provide the latter with guidance, advice, and all forms of support they need to be able to meet challenges of adolescent life. The older youths do not only serve as mentors but as role models to the younger ones. They are not perfect but having been through the same stage and most likely, the same problems, predicaments, and challenges in their homes, school and community; they are in the position to provide friendly advice, positive influences, attention, and moral support to these younger teens.

Mentoring programs, either in schools, local communities, and youth organizations bear the following characteristics:

• Centered on the needs of the youth – Every peer mentoring program is designed to meet the specific needs of the teens to be mentored. Those who come from broken homes, for example, may need more time for counseling and recreation activities that would help them divert their thoughts on sad experiences at home towards happy ones. Those with academic problems may require more time for tutorials.

• Participants voluntarily join a peer mentoring program – A big part of the success of peer mentoring lies on the voluntary participation of the mentor and the younger teens. The student must not be forced to attend the peer mentoring program as this would only make things more difficult for him. The student must first acknowledge the need to have a mentor, someone who is older, wider, and more experienced than him. Only upon acknowledging this need can he actively participate in the activities in the mentoring program.

• Mentors are bound by the responsibility to keep things confidential – Trust is very important in building good relationship between the mentor and the student; thus, it is a must or the mentor to keep things that he and the student talks about confidential. Without trust, it would be hard for the person mentored to talk about the things he feels and thinks especially about very critical issues involving him, a close friend or his family.

Joining a Mentoring Program

Joining a peer mentoring program starts with the eagerness to be a part of a support group or program that is aimed at creating changes both on the life of the mentor and the younger person to be mentored.

If you want to be a mentor, first you must be prepared in all aspects. Do you have a plan on how to conduct peer mentoring? Do you know what to do when trying situations arise? Do you have the patience necessary for you to deal with persons who might be going through tough moments in their life? How would you handle issues such as early pregnancy, divorce, and drug addiction?

When you are ready, the next thing you should do is to look for a pee mentoring program that is suited to your interests. You can look for these in your school, local community and even online. You may also ask for your teachers, schoolmates, and friends’ recommendations. You can also ask the head of your local community church or youth organizations in your community or neighboring areas.

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A short film from Everett Dance Theatre’s mentor program. … everett dance theatre theater small mentor mentors youth Providence RI Rhode Island carriage house

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