Today we’d like to introduce you to Monique Young.
Hi Monique, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
For years I have always wanted to give back to my community. While brainstorming, I asked God what part of the community he wanted me to give back to. After praying, fasting, and being obedient, God gave me the vision to mentor young girls in my community. I started by working with the people I knew already in the community who I felt would believe in my purpose, and I started reaching the communities that were familiar with me and stepping out on faith. I began this journey in October 2020 and have impacted many girls in the community. While on this journey, I have found that many young girls suffer from low self-esteem, self-confidence, mannerism, and much more. When I was a young girl, I knew it took a village to raise a child, and because so many people poured into me, I knew that I had to pour back into the little girl I once was.
Once we established our 501c3, I knew I could impact more children in the community. More doors begin to open. Better Me Mentoring began to instill what we knew our young girls in the communities needed. Our mission is to inspire, cultivate, and extend a helping hand to the youth. It is because of our mission, vision, and purpose that we have impacted over 100 girls in Columbia, SC, and surrounding areas.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it has not been a smooth road. It has been a long, rewarding road. I struggle the most with grants because many donors like to see the time put into the organization. Getting people to believe in your purpose and what you do is hard. Of course, people want to ensure that they are giving to the right organization and to ensure that not just anyone will misuse the funds. We started by hosting events and fundraisers so the community could see what we were doing and how much of an impact we have made and will make. Another area that I had struggles in was finding the right board members, and it can be difficult because people may have busy lives or need help understanding their position on the board. I prayed, and I continued to pray. God has given me some phenomenal board members for the year 2023, and I pray that he will continue to bless the organization with more people who believe in the mission, vision and purpose. Let’s say we are just getting started as we approach our 3rd year in the nonprofit world.
We’ve been impressed with The Better Me Mentoring, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share about what you do and what sets you apart?
The Better Me mentoring program established roots in March 2020 in the Richland County area of South Carolina (SC), offering a positive, tangible influence of supportive educational and emotional balance for vulnerable student learners and families in vulnerable communities during the Covid 19 pandemic. The Better Me Mentoring program provides continued learning support systems for female students aged (7 to 16 years old) in Richland Counties predominately Black but not limited to lower-income communities making those students the most vulnerable children bearing the most significant impacts of COVID-19. The mentoring program targets female students aged (7 to 16 years old) in a developmentally sensitive stage of life. The management of new ways of learning and coping was critical, especially with lower parental supervision, disruption of school-delivered nutrition, more inactive lifestyle, and higher social media use due to the pandemic. Schleicher (2020) suggests the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education system is devastating. Hence, the strategies of The Better Me mentoring program during school closures were critical for continued learning support strategies for the most vulnerable.
The COVID‐19 pandemic forced South Carolina and most of the United States into an emergency stay‐at‐home order in which social distancing was required except for those living in the same household. Households lost jobs while others worked from home, along with children who needed to finish the school year remotely. For public health purposes, COVID-19 caused social isolation, mental and emotional concern, and distress for parents and children. The strict isolation measures, the closure of schools and workplaces, and the loss of income for many families have had and will continue to have significant negative impact on children’s education, health, and well-being. In SC, COVID-19 appears to have deepened the impact of disparities in opportunity for children of color in public schools due to challenges in access to learning technology and navigating virtual classrooms. For many elementary and high school students who may have learned, COVID-19 significantly disrupted their education and services needed to support their academic progress and prevent failure. Due to the COVID-19 impact, those children may continue to see exacerbating disparities in academic achievement. Distance learning with online resources and schoolwork in paper materials sent to children’s homes or by email was difficult for parents and young minds to navigate. The associated uncertainty and anxiety, the disruptions to children’s education, their time with friends, and the need for teacher-learning approaches were endless.
The Better Me mentoring program also identified the development of self‐identity, acquiring healthy social and emotional skills for positive life skills, and decision-making was critical for this gender and age group during the pandemic. The Better Me mentoring program reached out to a cohort of professional friends, supporters of equity in educational learning, and community members and gatekeepers who were already invested in the community to build community allegiances. The Better Me Mentoring program was established to ensure a volunteerism base for helping the students manage the new way of learning and coping in the face of the pandemic. The Better Me Mentoring program reached out to local middle schools and high schools in the Richland County area, informing them of the mentoring program and how to get students involved in the community-based program during the pandemic. The mentoring program also utilized the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Gmail to promote the new emerging mentoring program. The response by email to the Better Me Mentoring program was met with enthusiasm and overwhelming responses from parents/caregivers who needed help navigating the new educational online process and the emotional weariness of young female girls who needed additional support. Invested community members, professional friends, and supporters of equity in educational learning rallied around the Better Me Mentoring program and vulnerable communities to see the best approach to help female students (aged 7 to 16 years old) in disproportionately affected communities. The Better Me mentoring offered new options and possibilities using online platforms like Zoom and Gmail. In an article by Gupta and Jawanda (2020), the negative impact on the educational process for children due to the Covid 19 pandemic will be seen for years to come. The Better Me mentoring program has responded to the call to action of affected communities in Richland County, SC, and strategically designed educational programmatic solutions offering mentorship face to face, online, and in-person educational support with community partnerships to strengthen educational gaps further, peer activities that foster healthy decision making, self-identity, social and emotional skills for positive life outcomes mitigating the impact of COVID19 for its targeted population.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memory was the family cookouts that my family would have and the time that we spent together. In today’s society, many families are not big on “it takes a village to raise a child.” The community needs to return to that because our children are losing focus. Because few role models or positive programs are offered, we are losing our children to incarceration, gun violence, domestic violence, and much more at an early age.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bettermementoring/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBetterMeCEO/
Image Credits
Snow Whittaker
