SAYes Youth Mentoring Programmes South Africa

Dear valued supporters

Here is an update on our programmes, which are running only because of incredible people like you.

June was a busy month for SAYes.

In South Africa, we are delighted to be working with St Michael's Child and Youth Care Centre in Cape Town again. St Michael's was one of our first partner children's homes, so we really are thrilled to have reconnected with them and to be providing mentorship support to the young people who are planning to exit the home now that they are approaching 18.

In the UK, our first mentees have graduated from our pilot programme. We have had some great feedback, some of which is "life-changing". More will graduate in the coming months and we will share our full pilot report with you when they have. We are now looking to expand our support to more young care leavers throughout the UK through our local authority partners and through referrals from our graduating mentees.

Loadshedding (power cuts) continue to make online meetings a challenge in South Africa, but we are happy to report that the majority of our mentors and mentees have found a way to continue to meet on a weekly basis. Where there's a will there's a way!

Our Alumni
 

Annual Report 2021

We are delighted to launch our 2021 Annual Report (link below)
https://issuu.com/sa-yes/docs/sayesannualreport2021_issuu
 

We have added more interviews to our new website feature 'Meet our Mentees'.

This time, we hear from Langa and Biscoth. Both of them describe the ways that having a mentor allowed them someone to talk to and someone to listen. Keep checking our website blog each week to read more.

Read more here: https://sayesmentoring.org/meet-our-mentees-new-regular-feature/

As always, if you would like to know more about our work mentoring young people, both in South Africa and the UK, you can email us at volunteer@sayesmentoring.org.

Best wishes,
Michelle Potter 
Executive Director and Co-founder, SAYes
 

Welcome to our new feature spotlighting our mentors and mentees.

We have been interviewing our mentors or mentees, and finding out about their SAYes journey. We hope you enjoy learning more about them.

What is your name?
Mel

What is/was your role at SAYes? Mentor or Mentee?
Mentor

What year/s were you in the SAYes programme?
From 2020…

How did you hear about SAYes?
I bought one of Gillian Anderson’s t-shirts for charity on Instagram! It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised the proceeds were for SAYes. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and I found myself with lots of spare time on my hands and had actively been looking for something that I could get involved with. SAYes seemed like the perfect opportunity.

What attracted you to SAYes/What made you sign up?
The principles and values of SAYes really resonated with me. I had also experienced something similar in my youth and knew just how beneficial and meaningful it could be. I wanted to pay it forward.

What concerns (if any) did you have when thinking about signing up?
In previous experience I was used to ‘helping’ people directly and solving problems. I knew mentoring was not like this and wondered if I would be able to switch my mindset. 

What were you hoping to get out of the SAYes programme?
I wanted to learn more about the mentoring role in general and to expand my knowledge. To show up and hopefully make a difference.

Tell us about the challenges you faced in the SAYes programme.
Data and wifi problems have been the biggest challenge so far. You have to get creative!

Tell us about the positives of the programme.
You get to meet some really great people and share experiences. Gaining new or different perspectives is also incredibly valuable.

Anything else you would like to tell us?
SAYes is doing such important work and I’m extremely grateful to be a part of it!