The power of showing up | raise.org.au
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Our Raise community spreads beyond the mentee and mentor match, into the support networks mentees gain and the skills they take home to their families. We know mentors use the skills they develop through mentoring in their homes, in their workplace and in their communities. For the first time, this year we have started to quantify the ripple effect of mentoring on a mentor. We have found that each mentor, on average, supports at least one additional young person as well as at least one additional adult in their lives. As we expand into different training offerings, we have strengthened our measurement of the outcomes volunteer mentors experience through training and mentoring with Raise. This year we captured two psycho-social safety measures, with strong results in both. With a growing expectation that workplaces provide physical and psychological safety for their employees and actively support the wellbeing of their teams, we are thrilled that Raise mentors are more confident to support others’ wellbeing in the workforce (91%) and able to create safe and inclusive environments (85%). This year marked the second year of the Raise independent evaluation, with data collection and analysis being undertaken to support the impact and economic evaluations. We have already been using the process review undertaken in 2022 to inform our program improvement and further strengthen the experience and outcomes for mentees and mentors. We are looking forward to sharing the findings of the independent evaluation in early 2024 and using the recommendations to improve our effectiveness and our quality. For many young people in Australia, stress is at school and at home, when they look at what is going one in the world right now and what is to come in their future. And while the fear about lockdowns or a return to remote learning has diminished, the worry about financial and housing insecurity is rapidly increasing. We saw large increases in the prevalence of households’ stressors, as well as discrimination, bullying and mental health issues. We know what we’re seeing at Raise is a snapshot of what is happening for young people right across Australia, demonstrated again in this year’s Mission Australia Youth Survey.
For many adult Australians, their sense of connection and social cohesion is decreasing. They are feeling more pessimistic about the future and less connected to Australian society. Loneliness is increasing and is described as one of the most pressing public health priorities in Australia. The decline in formal volunteering accelerated due to the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic (36% in 2019 to 27% in 2022), at the same time informal or local-scale volunteering is increasing. I hope as you read through this year’s Raise Evaluation Report you will consider what improved connection and confidence can create, starting at the individual relationship between a young person and their mentor and rippling out into their many different communities across our country. We know how great the need is, but at Raise we are proud to be contributing to so many parts of the solution.
Lucy Snowball Lucy Snowball Data and Youth Insights Director
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