MENTOR Spotlight: BroadFutures
As part of MENTOR National’s continued 30th-anniversary celebration, we’re highlighting mentoring stories featuring our local Affiliates, programs, advocates, mentors, and mentees who champion the power of relationships and connections.
Many mentoring programs have had to pivot to online activities in response to the spread of COVID-19 and nationwide physical distancing measures. One such program is BroadFutures, an organization that prepares young people with learning disabilities for successful employment by offering support and programming that bolsters confidence and independence. BroadFutures runs programs that encompass a group-training portion where mentees develop professional communication, stress reduction, and time management skills in a risk-free environment. Once they have completed the program, BroadFutures places the young people in paid internships and pairs them with a coach and a peer mentor. Together, mentors and mentees set goals, identify strategies to reach those goals, and meet regularly to track progress. Since its launch, BroadFutures has served over 180 young people directly and provided over 4,000 hours of mentoring and 3,000 hours of coaching. Due to the challenges posed by COVID-19, BroadFutures has also been offering virtual career and college readiness trainings and one on one services.
Here, Alexa Weidanz, BroadFutures mentor and Senior Program Associate, and her mentee, Nicholas, share their experiences as part of the program.
In Alexa’s words:
“In my three and a half years at BroadFutures, I have acted as a mentor to over 50 young people with learning disabilities. From the first day we meet, mentors work hard to ensure that rapport is built with the mentees before they begin their respective internships. It is important that the mentee feels comfortable sharing their experiences and challenges with their mentor to work together towards their goals. To foster a supportive relationship between myself and my mentees, I strive to be an active listener and validate all the feelings and experiences shared with me. As a peer mentor, I work hard to provide guidance and share my personal experiences in the workplace. Some of my favorite moments as a mentor are when my mentees report their successes in the workplace, such as solving a novel problem independently or realizing that their disability is an advantage in the workplace. I have learned so much from my mentees, and it has been such a rewarding experience.”
In Nicholas’ words:
“I first heard of BroadFutures in the summer of 2016 when the program was heavily recommended to me by a contact who has known me since childhood. I was lucky enough to partake in the program as part of a group in early 2017. I interned under mentor Nyasha Chibanda’s guidance and followed up on the experience three years later when I worked in an individual program with Alexa Weidanz. I cannot extend enough thanks in the world to my mentors for keeping me on pace to set and meet my objective and for really helping me hone some workplace communicational skills that will be critical to whatever it is that I’ll do moving forward. The great experiences I’ve had under my mentors have been countless. Looking back on it, I think the best thing about the program has been just how much investment its mentors have in their mentees and how much emphasis they put on promoting self-advocacy and self-care within the workplace. As BroadFutures welcomes new classes of interns and mentees, I look forward to seeing how they will continue to cultivate individuals whose experiences can resonate with young adults from all walks of life and inspire them to treat their disability as less of a curse and more as a chance to tell a compelling story about ourselves to those that we get to know professionally and personally.”
As part of their pivot to online programming, which will continue through Summer 2021, BroadFutures infused their core focus areas – independence, self-confidence, communication, and resilience – into their virtual work. Participants received peer support and arts, yoga, and mindfulness training through Zoom. In partnership with local high schools, BroadFutures expanded the reach of their programming through virtual workshops, where students learned about first impressions, self-advocacy, mock interviews, disclosure, and accommodation. As Alexa and Nicholas exemplify in their stories, it’s important that young people can maintain their support networks while navigating a time of physical disconnection. These mentoring relationships can help mentees further develop their confidence, explore new personal and professional pathways, and affirm the experiences they’re facing.
If you’re interested in mentoring young people with disabilities, you can use our Mentoring Connector to find a program that works for you.