What is Standing Tall and why should my child be part of the Program?

Standing Tall in Hamilton Inc. is a registered national charity that delivers weekly, one hour, school-based mentoring sessions to students. Mentors are local community members who are screened, trained, and are carefully matched with your child based on their interests, hobbies and specific needs.

Our mentors are caring community members who share their life knowledge and skills with the younger generation. Standing Tall is committed to child safety we ensure that all our mentors undertake a stringent application and screening process before they are matched with a student.

Standing Tall is a free resource for students, we are a small charity fully funded by the local community, illustrating the importance that our community places on the wellbeing of its young people.

Standing Tall school-based mentoring is a great resource that can be accessed through your school to provide an additional support to your child – another great tool to strengthen your child’s wellbeing.

An article written by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD in Psychology Today, outlined a recent study, which examined 70 mentoring programs. The report states that more than 25,000 young people found that mentoring had a significant effect on positive youth development (Raposa, et. al 2019). A synopsis of the Raposa study (as outlined in the Psychology Today article) reads:

“Research shows that adult mentoring:

• Models positive social skills and facilitates interpersonal connections beyond family.
• Helps young people interpret and manage life challenges, including relationships with peers and parents.
• Facilitates meaningful conversations that boost cognitive skills and provides perspective.
• Strengthens self-regulation, one’s ability to manage emotions and impulses—to think before acting.
• Promotes identity development, a key task of adolescence, through modelling core qualities that contribute to human thriving, like empathy, curiosity, resourcefulness, and resilience.
• Opens doors to new ways of thinking, resources, and opportunities.
• Fosters self-efficacy—a belief in oneself”.

If you have any further questions about how your child can be involved, please contact your School Wellbeing Team.