The power of one keen mentor

Hannah Buchanan, left, with her Project K mentor Jeanene Savelkouls, who helped the teenager into modelling and is only a text message away. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

By the time students enter Project K, they feel their lives are out of control.

Most are not communicating well with adults. They're kicking against their parents. Teachers are often the enemy. Which, says Graeme Dingle of Project K, is where mentors come in.

Trained adults, free from family baggage and classroom politics, can get under teenagers' radar to form a bond. They keep young people on track and expose them to new attitudes, ideas and people.

The skills they teach, often while jamming on a guitar or riffling through a rack of clothes, include building resilience (the art of bouncing back); positive thinking (concentration on strong points and successes); goal setting (and the small steps that make big goals possible); cause and effect and the upside of stretching themselves, physically, mentally and experientially.

Dingle, mountaineer and chairman of the Project K Trust, talks about the "astounding" power of mentoring and the "compelling results" revealed by his early research.

"This gorgeous country was producing some of highest negative statistics on young people in the world. It became clear there were an awful lot of programmes for kids who had fallen over the cliff, but very few for those who were skidding out of control towards the edge."

That group turned out to be teenagers around 14, selected via Dingle's "self efficacy" system which evaluates every Year 10 student in participating schools.

"They measure their own ability to change a circumstance," explains Dingle. "We ask them: 'Do you feel powerful? Can you work out the steps needed to get into that team you want to get into?' "

It is those who don't feel in control, who are having trouble either staying in school or handling its pressures, who make the programme.

Dingle remembers how United States president Bill Clinton was so enthusiastic about the power of mentoring he told secretary of state Colin Powell that he wanted two million young Americans in mentoring relationships by the year 2000. "I don't know if he achieved it."

Far-sighted businessman, Chris Liddell, then of Carter Holt Harvey (now of Microsoft in the US) thought so much of Project K's mentoring system he introduced it to CHH employees.

As Dingle says, "The value of mentoring was much greater than anyone anticipated. The company said it was great for them, it was certainly good for our kids. Of our 10 most outstanding children, three were mentored by CHH people."

The problem is finding mentors, especially men, to take on hundreds of under-performing youths identified by Dingle's programme. Mentors need to be young enough to speak the same language as their students, have led relatively blameless lives - and have hearts as big as rugby balls.

All must have medical and police checks, ruling out those with criminal records, especially around violence, sexual abuse, dishonesty and drugs.

They must be on top of their own lives, prepared to give their time and energy for a year - and be as young as possible. Once accepted, they embark on 20 hours of formal training in youth issues, communication techniques, goal setting and more.

Demands include a year of fortnightly meetings with their students, dozens of texts, emails and phone calls, possibly a barbecue, a selection day function when they meet students and their parents, plus a wind-up event. Throughout the year they have progress checks with their mentor tutor - and all the support they need.

Jane Edwards, mentoring tutor for Waitakere, loves her job.

"We get amazing people," she says. "They're usually really busy and outgoing, with big lives. The downside is that lots of them go away which means they can't mentor for a full year, so there's always a need for more."

The ability to commit to 12 consecutive months is crucial, says Edwards. "I know when mentors pull out the effects are very bad. Often students have been let down before."

Once in, Edwards arranges for mentors to meet students at a post-wilderness wind-up barbecue.

Next comes the mentor matching day when 12 students (six male and six female), plus their families and prospective mentors hang out together. They play baseball, team building, cut the chocolate.

Then, after a one-on-one session where each student and mentor get five minutes together, everyone writes the names of three people they could work with and three they couldn't.

Who chooses who is unpredictable. "To some it's down to what the mentor looks like," says Dingle. "Some people think a Maori must be mentored by a Maori. That's proved not true. What kids do choose is a mentor who has the qualities and skills they want.

"All the lists go back to the office and we match them," says Edwards. "Sometimes mentors don't get their first choice. But the students are never given a mentor they didn't want."

Why? "Because it will never work!"

The task for the mentor is formidable. The payoff, in dollar terms, nil; in personal fulfilment life-long. As Dingle says, "Although it's not all smooth sailing, the mentors go through a huge amount of growth too."

Students are evaluated before, during and after the programme and one and three years after they finish.

Control groups ensure meaningful comparisons can be made. Considering the programme is for young people at their most chaotic and vulnerable, the results are outstanding: 94 per cent of PK students remain in school compared with 65 per cent for the control group; self-esteem increased by 18 per cent compared with 4 per cent for the control group; a doctoral study revealed PK students had significant increases in wellbeing, family cohesion and personal goals.

"We know kids stay at school when they wouldn't have before," says Dingle. "We've put a huge effort into proving that it works."


Case 1

Bowling And Bonding

Mentoring may not be easy, but it is fulfilling. Take the experience of Daniel Ford, who mentors 16-year-old Matt Moss. It was music that attracted Matt to Ford, rather than his masters (hons) in psychology.

Ford joined Project K's mentor scheme because "there wasn't much stuff around for men. We're the ones that create most problems in society, yet there's nothing for us. And a lot of us don't have fathers."

At 28, Ford's own adolescent cynicism is still fresh. He remembers communication problems with his parents, that need to melt into the gang and thinking he and his mates were smarter than their teachers.

He liked the way Matt weighed things up and stood back to see how things developed. "He's an intelligent guy. Others jump in feet first, but not rushing in's a good thing. It just means it's harder to crack the shell."

At first Ford used their fortnightly meetings for movies or ten pin bowling. Later they started spending their Tuesday evenings at Matt's parents' place at Bethells Beach, "just chatting and jamming around on the guitars". And, after nearly a year, a bond started to develop.

"At first we just talked about what he was into," says Ford. Now they talk about school. Ford tells Matt what happened to his classmates - including the clever ones who were into drugs and didn't fulfil their early promise.

Matt sets goals at college so Ford concentrates on building their relationship. "He's very cynical. Goal setting, to him, is work, 'a bit gay'."

Matt has his driver's licence (goal one) which took him closer to getting a job (goal two). Ford is not so sure how well he did in achieving his NCEA grades (goal three).

Project K means Matt now has a different group of friends from his schoolmates. He also has Ford, who looks mildly dismayed at the thought of the "goodbye" module of the programme looming in November.

"That's a choice," he says. "It may be the point where the relationship develops."

Does he think he's made a big difference to Matt's life chances? "Hopefully a bit of a difference."

Which, for this young mentor is enough.

Case 2

Project Runway

When one of her acting students told Jeanene Savelkouls Project K was looking for mentors she was ready. Her daughters were 7 and 9, her husband busy in his own career - the 20 hours of training and one meeting a fortnight with a student sounded a breeze.

"I see teenagers having so many struggles," says Savelkouls, 34, a "method" trained actor, teacher and life coach who was perplexed by her 15-year-old nephew. "He's so into his mates and his family is second-best. I wanted to try and understand the mentality." '

During her 20s a mentor steered Savelkouls in the right direction - and changed her life. "She gave me confidence and belief in myself."

The student who put Savelkouls at the top of her list of mentors was Hannah Buchanan. "I think what caught her was my interest in short films," says Savelkouls who was alarmed by how shy and softly spoken Hannah was at first.

"It was really hard trying to get information out of her. I'd ask her a question and it'd be 'yes', 'no'. I felt almost like a spy."

It took two months for trust to show, "for her to confide in me, almost treat me like a friend". The duo met every week, sometimes every fortnight, texted and called each other. More and more their conversations turned towards modelling.

When a friend told Savelkouls Nova's Model Search was coming up she arranged a quick catwalk-training session. By the time Hannah arrived at St Lukes with her parents to join the other 100-plus tall, skinny teenagers on the first week of the school holidays, Savelkouls was waiting.

Hannah made it to the final 12, won four days of free training, and is now signed with Nova.

Six weeks later mentor and teen are obviously close: They sit, heads together, Hannah with her braces and tremulous, emerging beauty, Savelkouls with her energy, ideas and sense of direction.

What made Hannah change so much? "Confidence in herself," says Savelkouls. "And having a project together - it really is about finding something you can share."

Would she have made it into modelling without Savelkouls and Project K? "Yes," says Hannah slowly, stirring her hot chocolate. "But probably not as fast."

Adds Savelkouls, "It would've been a dream - which is where the mentor comes in and goes, 'If that's your dream let's chase it'. "

Hannah's parents are thrilled with their daughter's fledgling modelling career, her new-found self-confidence - and her mentor.

"They told me that night how pleased they were that Hannah had me in her life."

They are confident their daughter can tackle the tough side of modelling especially as Savelkouls is just a text message away. "In those sort of situations sometimes you can't call your parents, but you can call someone you're not so indebted to.

"This has been such a satisfying experience for me. I love helping people and it fulfils that need."

The K factors

Project K (for Koru) is a three-part programme researched and founded in 1996 by Graeme Dingle and Jo-anne Wilkinson, designed to help mildly troubled students turn their lives around.

Part One: 20-day wilderness adventure that stretches students mentally and physically. "The research showed us that giving people a quite dramatic experience in the outdoors would have an inspiring effect as long as it [the experience] was longer than 20 days," says Dingle.

Part Two: 10-week community challenge, "Designed to make the big life lessons that come out of that wilderness adventure transfer to a young person's everyday life."

Part Three: 12-month mentoring programme.

Students in programme 481; participating schools 27; mentors 462