Why have a Mentor service?
Happiness Habits was created in response to a recognised gap in services for women. Often services end and the participants are left with no-one to support them on the next leg of their journey. Evidence and experience has proven the benefit of having a mentor when women are moving from an unhealthy environment to a healthier way of living. We are honoured to be able to offer our mentor service to those women who are ready to take on the challenge of discovering their “what next”!
What is a Happiness Habits Mentor?
Our mentors are fully trained female volunteers. We start with an orientation session where the mentors are given information and the opportunity for any questions to be answered. Our Mentors then receive ongoing training, including a monthly training session and a debrief session once a month. Our training is all face to face once again, but we can offer online for any session you can’t attend in person.
Mentors work one-on-one with their Mentees, in a friendly but always professional relationship. The role of the Mentor is to build rapport, work with the Mentee to figure out what it is they want to achieve, support their Mentee to identify and action goals, to advocate for them and offer referrals to other services where needed but referrals are always done in consultation with the Happiness Habits Mentoring manager.
Who are the Happiness Habits Mentees?
Happiness Habits work with vulnerable and disadvantaged women who are looking to create a better life for themselves, and approach our service voluntarily. Our mentees can self-refer, but many are referred by other services and we are often a part of the exit strategy form those services. We match our Mentees with suitable Mentor and introduce them with a ‘warm handover’ with their case manager (where applicable) and the Happiness Habits Mentor Manager present. The Mentees are offered an opportunity to participate in our workshops, courses and social group.
Our successes
Over the last three years Happiness Habits has supported hundreds of women to create a better life. We have watched some truly incredible transformations take place with our Mentees. Mentees have traded their unhealthy environments for healthy and empowered lifestyles and have gone on to further education, employment and finding their true purpose. Many are now working to ‘pay it forward’ by becoming mentors themselves.
OUR GOAL
Happiness Habits, as an organisation, has its own goal; to become redundant to the Mentee.
That may sound strange, but what we mean by that is when a women is truly empowered, we are no longer needed to support them on their journey. We get excited when we are no longer need, because it means we’ve done our job successfully.
Improve your life or help someone improve theirs.
