Ohana HC is not just another mentoring organization – it is mentoring as a family! We form small groups of four diverse adults that wrap ourselves around a young teen empowering them to succeed, supporting them both academically and personally. This support from Ohana HC lasts 10 years for the student, though volunteers need commit for only one year (most stay longer than that!)
Sounds straight forward enough…. but we, as mentors, get so much more! We get to meet and work with our student and tangentially his/her family. We are also lucky enough to work deeply with members of our own four-person Ohana – people often from different demographics from ourselves. We get a chance to get to know them and through our intense work, form deep, caring bonds of our own with them. As our experience often involves frequent strong conversations about our student and their unique challenges, we come to share our own life experiences and paths, furthering our own bonds.
This shared mentorship brings us together as unique adults, each sharing our skills with one student as we seek to engage with and intimately help him/her thrive. But our own strands of caring and friendship are also growing and that has been a silver lining I never thought about or expected!
-Cathie Perolman
Ohana Mentor