Mentoring

Pathway provides support and guidance to volunteers who commit to mentoring of released prisoners under our programmes. Released prisoners have many ‘experts’ on life around them. They often have few people who simply want to take an interest in them and their progress. This is an area of need for any individual.

Why Mentor?

Mentoring is a gift that is shared. It is a relationship that enables purposeful conversation. The conversation assists the mentored to reflect on their own experience, make-informed decisions and act upon the ideas that are generated.
The purpose of mentoring is:

• Personal Development
  It is about learning, not teaching and both mentors and those mentored grow from the experience. 
• To develop trusting relationships
  conversations that enables people to set and achieve goals, make decisions and solve problems. 
• To walk alongside someone
  Mentoring is enriching for both partners and walking alongside another person as they make the transition from prison back into the community can be very satisfying.

Understanding the Fears and Concerns of Inmates on their Release

Individuals leaving prison have been living in a very different environment from what they will find in the community and will need to develop new coping and life skills if they are to be successful in their transition.

An inmate making the transition from prison to the community will need to re-learn these social skills (trust, acceptance, love) and have an opportunity to practice these in a safe environment so that they are able to start thinking about the future again. Additionally, this transition period is when they will be attempting to re-establish themselves in the community without having a great deal of supports or resources to do this with. They will have demands by Probation, Work & Income, family and themselves which will all need to be meet. Like any transition it is both exciting and a stressful time.

Very few people leave prison with the intention of every returning, prison is not an inviting place. Very few leave with the emotional, physical or social resources strong enough to negotiate the path from prison to successful functioning within the community.

The provision of mentoring and re-integrative supports through pathway is aimed at filling some of these gaps during the reintegration period.

If this is an area of interest then please contact Carey for further information on how to become a Pathway Mentor.

Request for further information carey@pathway.co.nz or phone 03 982 4853