When asked, “Who was/is a mentor to you?” We can all probably think of one or more people who have made significant impacts on our lives. Mentors are vital in learning social skills, working through tough situations, and helping you find the right place in your community. Boundless staff members Kelli James and Kiara James join host, Scott Light, to share stories about how mentors have impacted them personally as well as the impressive progress they’ve witnessed in individuals who are receiving mentoring services at Boundless. After all, we are all stronger when we have supportive people in our lives.
When asked, “Who was/is a mentor to you?” We can all probably think of one or more people who have made significant impacts on our lives. Mentors are vital in learning social skills, working through tough situations, and helping you find the right place in your community. Boundless staff members Kelli James and Kiara James join host, Scott Light, to share stories about how mentors have impacted them personally as well as the impressive progress they’ve witnessed in individuals who are receiving mentoring services at Boundless. After all, we are all stronger when we have supportive people in our lives.
Well, a question to our guests as we jump right into our January episode, who was or still is a mentor to you, Kelli, would you start us off?
Kelli James:So my original mentor at Boundless was my supervisor Kirsten Crummel. She was a really good influence on me when I first started, she was really great about providing a lot of training and being extremely supportive. She was really great about supporting everybody's well being and work life balance. And so she was a really great mentor to provide additional opportunities for me to grow at Boundless as well. And I still feel like I can go to her if I have questions.
Scott Light:That's awesome. Kiara How about a mentor for you?
Kiara James:So when I was in college, I went through a research program and I had a mentor that I worked close under. And we, you know, developed a survey together. But she outside of the actual work, she helped me through a lot of personal things and also preparing me for the workforce. You know, before I graduated from college, she taught me a lot about how to similar to Kelli, how to manage work life balance, and different different skills I think we're necessary for employment, and even my own personal things I could use in my own personal life.
Scott Light:We're going to talk more about that. So let's jump right into it here. Welcome, everyone to how about this season four of Well-Being a podcast brought to you by Boundless. Boundless is a nonprofit that provides residential support, autism services, primary health care, day programs, counseling, and a whole lot more to children and adults. Our mission is to build a world that realizes the boundless potential of all people. I'm your host, Scott light. So you heard our guests already. Now let me properly introduce you to them. Kelli James oversees the Peer Program here at Boundless and Kiara James works with individuals one-on-one and with groups here as well. Welcome to you both. Thank you, Kiara, let me come back to you. And let's talk about your respective mentors. Let's let's maybe expound on that, if you would, the person that you mentioned, you were in college, and this person helped you not only with it sounds like the your college experience, but also helped to prep you post college. Am I reading that? Right?
Kiara James:Yeah, I mean, originally, I was going to go directly to grad school after college, but I decided to take some time off. And then I got my job here at Boundless, but she kind of prepared me for, you know, What do employers look for, and then how to also work with people because my degree focus was in public health and community engagement. So I'm, you know, working, how to work with individuals, how to, you know, figure out what they need, how to have those conversations, how to have how to think outside the box, and kind of pay attention to things that people don't normally pay attention to.
Scott Light:Kelli, you mentioned a boss, isn't it great when you have a boss, a supervisor, who can also be a mentor,
Kelli James:definitely. And she really provided a lot of opportunities for me to grow at Boundless. And she was just a very good resource as well, being a licensed independent social worker, and having a lot of experience in the field. And I transitioned from another field of being an intervention specialist. And so I had experience working with individuals with disabilities, but then transitioning into the role that I am currently in, she just provided a lot of support, and really encouraged me like Kiara's mentor to think outside the box and provided a lot of support for growing the peer mentoring program as well.
Scott Light:Well by now our listeners have probably figured it out our mentoring focus here. That's the real crux of our episode this month. And we wanted to begin and I really appreciate both of you, beginning with a personal connection to your lives when it comes to a mentor. So now let's broaden it out to what's happening on the campus here at boundless when it comes to mentoring. So Kelli, let's do let's start there broadly, what is Boundless offer when it comes to mentoring programs?
Kelli James:Boundless offers our peer mentoring program for individuals with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and mental health challenges. We serve ages 14 to 40. And it's a wonderful program where individuals are matched with a young adult mentor to develop and maintain social skills. This includes things like communication skills, such as entering and exiting group and individual conversations, making and keeping positive relationships both within their families and outside of their families and community integration.
Scott Light:So let's break that down just a little bit. And Kiara, I'll ask you to jump in here. Maybe for group sessions. What does that look like in a group setting when we talk about mentoring programs here.
Kiara James:Yeah, so we have opportunities for in person and virtual group sessions, it'll be a lot of, you know, working with the group on teaching social skills, you know, teaching what a healthy relationship looks like with interpersonal relationships and things like that. Also, getting them involved with each other. So showing them how to, you know, these people are your peers, they probably have been through similar challenges, challenges as you and you know, you guys are similar age group. So showing them that, you know, you can socialize in these environments, safe space, you know, having them learn how to tell jokes, and it'd be appropriate or talk about personal experiences without sharing too much, you know, those kinds of boundaries within within social settings, and showing them you know, what's, how to have fun, but also learn at the same time.
Scott Light:And they're also one on one sessions as well?
Kelli James:Yes, so our one on one sessions cover a lot of the same topics that our group sessions cover, but also we tailor those individual sessions to be specific to the goals that those individuals and their families have. So in our individual sessions, we really focus on community integration, because we understand that in certain environments, individuals have learned a skill, but we want them to generalize them in the community, and feel like they have a place in the community, we don't want them to be isolated. We want them to go out and experience environments that people without disabilities frequent, and that they feel like they have a place in our community as well.
Kiara James:I would hop onto that, and say that a lot of individuals have more specific goals. As far as community integration, like, I want to, you know, volunteer, I want to go out and figure out my own places and make friends you know, some individuals want to be around more people without disabilities. So they want to, you know, see what that looks like. But they're not they don't have the resources at home to do so. So kind of helping them with that.
Scott Light:I found a quote that I'd like to hit both of you, I'd like to hear your thoughts on. And I bet you can relate it back to the work that you're doing here. Steven Spielberg, famous director, of course, he said this, the delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image. It's giving them the opportunity to create themselves. Kiara is that especially poignant for people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities,
Kiara James:yeah, I actually really liked that, quote, I think that individuals should be encouraged to express and be able to express themselves individually, their interests and their experiences and be able to share that with people, but also figure out more about themselves, what do they like, you know, what are their? What are their passions? What are their skills? What skills are they good at? What skills can they continue to build, even employment, you know, encourage them to, hey, if you want to get a job, you know, what kind of things would you do you think you'd be interested in or you think you'd be good at and kind of exploring that with them. So kind of just, you know, I can, I can share my own experiences, but really focus on you know them as a person.
Kelli James:I love everything that Kiara said, I completely agree. For example, one of the individuals that I've worked with, had an interest in dogs, and pets. And so working with them on finding employment and being more integrated into a job that had that passion for working with animals. So they found employment at a dog daycare, and they were provided those opportunities to be able to use those special interests in their employment as well. And they really found community in being around other people who had those same passions. So we really gave them that opportunity to practice those social skills in a safe place. And then they could translate those into their work environment as well.
Scott Light:Well and we've profiled some tremendous artists here from the Boundless campus who are out and creating their own artwork and getting paid for it, right. I mean, we had the owner of The Awesome Company, which is down in Grove City, and she employs all kinds of folks. They're incredible artists. And Kelli, to your point, it's about finding that fit, right finding that match,
Kelli James:definitely. And another program that we run is our Girls Night Out program, which we just finished up our first pilot group, and we actually have our reunion this week. And so it has been a really moving program that provides opportunities for teenage girls to be integrated together, regardless if they have a disability or not. And it has really given them opportunities to go get their hair done, or go to a fitness class, or go and sit at a cafe with friends and set goals for themselves. And they were finding their place in the community, and forming relationships, and taking selfies together, and hugging each other, and hanging out with each other outside of the group. And that's what the goal of the program is, is to have them build authentic relationships. And so Girls Night Out is an opportunity for them to really integrate into the community and find their specific passions like Kiara was talking about as well.
Kiara James:There's a few people that I've seen grow so much since I've started seeing them, or since they've been through the program, whether they're still in it or not, like I have a few individuals, one who which he used to be so nervous with social settings, you know, he wouldn't be quiet during group because he would participate in the peer mentoring and the group sessions that we had, he would be very quiet, not talk much at all, unless I you know, "Hey, do you want to answer this question?" you know, prompted him, and even then he would keep it very short. But throughout working with me one-on-one, and also working in the group, I saw him blossom, like seeing him, initiate conversation with his peers, you know, text them on the weekends, and ask them how their weekend was going, initiate playing video games with them online, you know, things like that, that was so like, such a transformation that I saw, and I was so proud of him. I have another individual who used to be, again, very shy, very timid, a lot of social anxiety, and through participating in group and going out in the community and things like that he's able to build, kind of start building healthy relationships with people. And, you know, hearing even hearing it from their parents, you know, their parents are like, "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe that they are doing this, I've seen so much of a change, like, thank you so much for all the work that you do." And I'm like, you know, it's not it's yeah, thank you for the compliment. But it's really your child is really, they're adults, but your child is doing this on their own, like they're really working hard to make this change in their life,
Scott Light:They're putting in the work, they really are. That's terrific. It's not a cookie cutter approach here can both of you talk about the tailor made approach that you take here at Boundless.
Kiara James:For me, I'd say, this job has taught me to be so flexible, so flexible, I've, It's completely different from something, anything I've ever experienced before. But kind of, it's learning the patience of figuring out, you know, what does this person need? What is their, their disability or their diagnosis? What does that hinder them from? Or what has it historically hindered them from and how can I help them, you know, build the skills to be able to still do the things that they want to do even with dealing with what they deal with, you know, and some, everyday is not the same. There are some days when you see them, you know, making a lot of progress. They can do good for weeks, and weeks and weeks, and then maybe they might have a bad day. And it's just it seems like regression, but maybe it's not regression, it's just, they just had a bad day. So just me being flexible and not, and continuing to encourage them and continuing to still uplift them and still give them the resources that they need. And still, hey, let's you know, even if you're having a bad day, let's go on a walk, let's go outside and breathe some air and talk, you know, so that you're not isolated in your room, you're not you know, shutting everybody out, that kind of thing. That has helped me a lot. And even building my own skills, outside of, you know, sessions and like researching things, watching lots of videos reading up on things like that, too.
Scott Light:Sounds like you grow with them.
Kiara James:Yeah, a lot.
Kelli James:One of the ways that we add personalization to Girls Night Out is that we have the girls set their own goals. Initially, they are given self-care and social skills goals that we want them to kind of track and see how they're initially doing on them. But then we want them to develop their own social skill and self-care goals that they can then carry out throughout the sessions. But then also, once Girls Night Out is done, once they feel that they've, you know, been through the session, they have these prerequisite skills, they developed these additional skills, let's get them to the point where they can carry those skills over into their everyday lives. And that is one of the ways that we really try to personalize Girls Night Out. And then whenever I've worked one-on- one with an individual I can think of one specifically where they needed help with life skills, and how can we integrate them into the community to practice these skills specifically, so I remember an instance where or they needed to develop the skill of picking up their medication, their family really wanted them to be able to independently get their medication from the pharmacy. And they also wanted to be able to do that to increase their own independence. So one of the ways that we did that is we role played, what does it look like going to the pharmacy? What kinds of questions are they going to ask you? What is appropriate to say to the pharmacy technician or the pharmacist while you're there? So then they went to the pharmacy counter, answered, the questions went through the interaction, I listened to how that interaction went, and then we debriefed in a private setting. And that way, they were able to have that ownership of their own social interaction. And then they were given that support on praising them and saying, "You did such a great job at X, Y, and Z. And what do you think you could improve on in the next interaction that you have? Or do you think it went great and perfect, and you just want to continue to make strides in the same way?"
Scott Light:That's incredible. And then that gives them confidence to do maybe a little bit more next time.
Kelli James:Exactly, definitely.
Scott Light:You guys are talking about just these impacts, plural. And let's say it emphatically, these are unequivocal impacts. I was doing reading and preparing for this episode looking at papers and articles, from a lot of different sources from the Department of Labor, Department of Health to the journal, Nature on the power of mentorship. And it positively affects everything from from general health to self esteem to communication skills. And Kiara, you were talking about that, too, even middle and high school dropout rates. So let's broaden back out when you look at just mentorship overall, maybe through the course of what you're doing here at Boundless for that age group, Kelly, that's a wide swath, 14 to 40 years old. How do you look at just that overall impact?
Kelli James:The purpose of having that age range is because we recognize that there are multiple transitions through life, there are individuals who are 14, and just getting into high school or 18 and transitioning out of high school, there are adults who have a late diagnosis, and they're saying, "Wow, this is all making sense, but I could use that extra support in my life, to really reach my full potential." And so we have seen success over multiple age ranges, working on a multitude of skills. And Kiara has done a wonderful job working with individuals who are very young all the way to, you know, being into young adulthood to adulthood. And so I think she would be a really great resource to hear how she has differentiated those skills across her practice.
Kiara James:You know, the individuals who are in high school, a lot of them may struggle with social skills in high school, you know, a lot of kids are on their phones, 24/7. So they don't want to talk to people, they don't want to make friends. And the friends that they do have are people that they've probably been friends with their whole lives, so it's hard to make new friends, you know. So kind of teaching them, you know, how to interact in those social settings, in a school setting, then the individuals who are right out of high school, you know, how do they find friends? How do they meet people? How do they socialize? How do they find their niche outside of school, because, you know, that's all they've known so far. And it's a challenge. And then, you know, individuals who are, you know, approaching 30, or older, you know, they might be more isolated in general, because maybe they don't have a lot of family members, or they, a lot of their friends have gone and got married and had kids and they and they're not at that point yet where they are ready for that. So how do I help them, you know, through each different stage of life? How do I make myself aware and knowledgeable of how to, you know, challenge them, help them build these skills, help them grow into these people that they want to be?
Scott Light:How can people find out more about what we've talked about here today?
Kelli James:So the best way is to reach out to my email address, which is KJames@Iamboundless.org. And I can give them more information on our peer mentorship program and discuss the goals that they have for their loved one or for themselves. And it is our goal to match individuals with mentors who would be the best fit for them, and they can reach out to me directly.
Scott Light:Well as we start to wrap up our conversation I have one more quote that I'd like to share and get both of your thoughts on this one is from Denzel Washington who said this,"Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life. I don’t care what you do for a living—if you do it well I’m sure there was someone cheering you on or showing the way. A mentor."
Kiara James:First of all, I love Denzel Washington, so it's great to hear those words from him. So I think the the part where he said someone cheering you on, that is a huge part because praise is so important, you know, that encouragement, that uplifting. You know, everybody needs that no matter who you are, to, to make you feel like you're actually making progress, that you're actually accomplishing your goals. So I think mentorship is that, you know, essentially, that's part of it, a huge part of it is that encouragement that someone that is in your corner, no matter what, no matter if anybody, nobody else is. And then secondly, I wanted to touch on the showing you the way, you know, a mentorship is it's like, like a kind of like a teacher in a way. You know, it's less formal, but it's definitely like a teacher, someone who, you know, shows you, makes you aware of things that you don't know, shows you information, teaches you things, you know. So I think that kind of is a really good embodiment of like what a mentor is.
Kelli James:I definitely agree with that. Having someone like Kiara said, in your corner, someone who can really provide that encouragement to you is such an impactful aspect of mentorship. And that's what we strive to do. Of course, we want them to learn specific skills and grow as a person but having that support in their life is also such an important part of our Peer Mentorship program, for them to have that connection with another person and feel like, "Hey, I have somebody in my life who really wants to support me, regardless of the skills that I need to work on." And to have that person in my life who is really here for me.
Scott Light:Thank you both for being here. Another great episode. And you kicked off season four of the Boundless podcast this is terrific and to our listeners, we couldn't do this without all of you. That's the reason we're in season four. So thank you as well. And again to our listeners you can be part of episodes to come email us your questions or comments at podcast@Iamboundless.org. This is the Well-being Podcast brought to you by Boundless.