“Mentor,” my mentee stuttered; he was not being his usual giddy self. “I’ve done something bad and I am afraid that if I tell anyone I am going to be in biiiig trouble.” I could see that he was genuinely scared. I encouraged him to trust me with his worst-case scenerio and assured him that I would not judge him. His whole body sunk and he confided in me. After considering things for a few days, he decided that it would be best to come clean and tell his mom. His mother swore at us over the phone for about 20 minutes, using words that I can’t spell or repeat. She was disappointed at first, but appreciated that her son had manned up.

Do you remember the first time you had to own up to something? That time you had to tell your parent or your boss that you had done something wrong? Wanting to crawl into a hole and never come out?

Would you like to spend one hour a week making a difference in the life of a young person? Request an application form for the SAYes Youth mentoring programme on our home page. This year we will be trialling a remote mentoring programme until it’s safe to meet in person again.