Dream Academy News | It Takes a Village

Friday January 22, 2010

There is an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child”.  The staff at the Dream Learning Center in Houston took that to heart last year when they implemented the Village Responsibility concept throughout the mentor program. 

The plan was to recruit prospective mentors from the staff’s social networks and while they made an agreement to mentor one child, they would collectively mentor all the children in the center.  The concept was carried out through weekly group mentoring activities which gave the mentors the opportunity to build a relationship with all the children.  In addition, the staff created different events for all the mentors to fellowship, network, and build relationships with one another.

The results of the Village Responsibility were truly inspirational.  Not only did the mentors increase the visibility of the program, but they shared their art forms, careers, entrepreneurial practices, and personal stories of struggles not just to their mentee, but to every child in the program.  In addition to improving the program, the idea of the Village Responsibility also enhanced the mentor experience.  Sharing about the experience, mentor Nsilo Reynolds said, “Having the mentors involved in so many activities throughout the year gave the mentees the sense that we are right there with them in educational programming and community initiatives.”

The Village Responsibility was an attempt to change perspectives on mentoring.  Center Director Walther Hull may have stated it best when he said, “What we wanted was a new perspective on how we interpret mentoring in our community.  We believe in our hearts that mentoring is an adult responsibility.  It’s not a calling or something that ‘some’ people do, it’s what every man and woman should be doing.”