Mentors needed for local youth
Burnaby Now
Mia Thomas, Staff Reporter
An opportunity to give has also proven to be an opportunity to receive for Steven Braun.
The Douglas College student, who lives in Burquitlam, is mentoring a young New Westminster resident through the Pacific Legal Education Association's KidStart Program.
The association has been nominated to receive the annual $1 million Vancity Award for the program, which matches adults as mentors with children six and older who are at-risk and vulnerable to crime, addiction and exploitation.
"It gives me something to look forward to when I see him," Braun said. "It's kind of neat to give him advice and see how he relates to it."
KidStart operates throughout the Greater Vancouver area. It currently has 120 volunteers working with 120 kids aged six to 18, but only four in Burnaby and five in New Westminster.
As Jennifer Lawrence, KidStart program manager, notes, that's a disproportionately low number for the two communities and they're obviously in dire need of more volunteers.
"The whole issue is that there is much more need than there is availability of mentors," Lawrence said.
She explained they prefer to match children and adults who live relatively close together.
One in five children with KidStart has been diagnosed with or is suspected of having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
More than a third are from homes where a parent or sibling has substance abuse issues, and three out of five are from single parent homes on income assistance.
The purpose of the program is to give the children information about other options in life so they don??t follow the same path.
The screening process for volunteers includes a couple of interviews, a criminal record check, an information session and training — both initial and ongoing.
Braun, who is enrolled in Douglas' new youth justice program, explains the young boy that he mentors sometimes phones him to check that Braun is still coming.
"It's nice to have someone who's looking forward to seeing you." Braun noted he also has a different perspective after spending time with the boy.
"He makes me think about things I wouldn't think about unless I was hanging out with someone his age."
Braun was working as a limousine driver a couple years ago when he decided working wasn't enough — he could do more with his life by volunteering.
Having been helped himself and steered in the right direction when he was younger, Braun — who plans a career as a police officer — decided to look for a mentoring opportunity. He saw an advertisement for volunteers who can speak Spanish, of which he knows a little, so he signed up with KidStart.
At the time, he didn't know what the program was about.
"I was expecting it to be like Big Brothers," Braun said. "I don't remember if I knew that each child had issues, but then I found out and that made it more interesting."
Braun volunteered with KidStart before he knew about the youth justice program, but he's finding them a good fit.
"I find now that everything I learn at school, I use with my youth," he said.
