MATES making connections across barriers

MATES making connections across barriers

A scheme that connects young people in low decile schools with university student mentors is looking at a bright future, thanks to recent funding boosts.

Run by the Great Potentials Foundation, MATES (Mentoring and Tutoring Scheme) has paired tertiary students with young people in Year 8 (MATES Junior) and Year 13 (MATES Senior) in schools around the Auckland region for the past 14 years.

During a weekly two-hour session after school in term time, mentors complement what’s happening in class by giving extra support to students at crucial transition points; from intermediate to secondary and from secondary to further education, training and employment.

Pairs are initially connected through common interests, then follow a loosely structured programme led by the young person’s needs.

Many of the MATES Junior student mentors study the theories behind what they’re doing in a second-year course taught by the University of Auckland’s Dr Pat Bullen, a committed academic voice at the forefront of youth mentoring at the Faculty of Education and Social Work.

MATES Junior regional manager Andrew Dawson says the wonderful thing about the programme is young mentees get a chance to set goals, to imagine wider horizons and engage with a person who is neither teacher nor parent, but more of a friend.

“It’s been great to hear that since the programme’s inception, many mentees who were part of a mentoring pair have achieved well academically,” he says.

Mansell Senior School in Papakura has been successfully running MATES Junior for four years.

Principal Rebecca Kaukau says the children who choose to take part see it as an honour and a leadership opportunity, and the relationship between mentor and mentee goes both ways.

“The children teach their mentors the school’s values, they get to share kai and to play host.”

Mansell is 75 percent Māori and 25 percent Pacific students and currently has 14 pairs who meet everyTuesday afternoon at the school between 3pm and 5pm.
The programme also runs at Avondale and Waimahia intermediate schools in Auckland.

Delighted with the funding, Great Potentials’ founder, social entrepreneur Dame Lesley Max, is dedicated to offering children an academic and personal hand up at important crossroads in their lives.

The MATES programmes received $216,000 from the Ministry of Youth Development and $300,000 from the Vodafone Foundation over three years, which, combined with other regular supporters, will allow it to continue in Auckland and expand into the Waikato.

Dr Bullen was the recipient of a $90,000 Vodafone World of Difference Fellowship in 2014, which allowed her to travel to study mentoring programmes internationally.

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