Sometimes messages are crystal clear. “It’s not my job to fix them, it’s my job to love them”. That one showed up just in time for Audra Simpson, founder of The Champion Project, an organization that mentors, and trains mentors for teens in foster care. While navigating the chaos of one of the many foster teens she’s worked with, Simpson found herself in the familiar place of needing to change the circumstances and behaviors of the young lady she was mentoring. Key word, needing. And isn’t that a familiar place for those who love kids from hard places? Needing things to change so that life is easier for the kid? Needing things to change so it’s easier on our hearts? It’s a familiar place for mentors in the foster care world. The challenge of leading and loving.

The need for mentors in the foster care community is overwhelming. Statistics show that even one consistent person in the life of an at-risk-youth can alter their trajectory exponentially. And consistency, in this demographic of mentoring, requires the understanding of the message in the title of this weeks episode. We, as mentors, must focus on connection, not accomplishment. Relationship, not results.

And the best part about mentoring, as in all things, we receive more than we give.

Audio only

DEEPER DOWN THE WELL

For more on the Champion Project – https://thechampionproject.org/contact/