The Youth Mentor Podcast

Most of us overthink starting something new - especially when it comes to mentoring or creating impactful programs for young people. What if the biggest obstacle isn't the idea itself, but simply getting started ? In this first episode of season 4, Amanda shares: how to stop overthinking and take action why sometimes doing the playful thing can get you out of a rut and help you figure out whet...

In this episode of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we chat with Holly Hashimi about her first year founding HeartSpark, a not-for-profit organisation that grew from 8 participants to multiple groups and a waitlist in just 12 months. Holly takes us behind the scenes of starting a youth organisation from scratch in Fort McMurray, Canada - from finding free spaces to run programs, to creative fundraising t...

In this episode of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we're joined by Sabine McKenzie, an eating disorder recovery coach who brings a refreshing perspective to conversations around body image, food, and wellbeing. With eight years of supporting youth and adults through her business, Sabine shares her evolution from promoting body positivity to embracing what she calls "the grey space" - a gentler, more neu...

In this episode of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we chat with Milly Bannister, founder of ALLKND, a charity dedicated to supporting youth mental health through its free, online Good Mate Training program. If you want to know how you can be a good mate for your loved ones and especially young people, or you've thought about what it takes to start a youth mental health charity, this episode is for you!...

Today, we're joined by Evie Wilson, the founder of Stardust Squad, a magical gathering place in regional Victoria, for girls aged 5-early teens years, where each girl is celebrated for her uniqueness, and empowered to explore the wonders of mindset, friendships, self love, health, growing older, communication + connection. In this episode, Evie shares the inspiring story behind Stardust Squad,...

In this episode we're joined by Louise O'Reilly who shares her perspective as an Aboriginal woman on how we can best support and mentor young people, drawing from her own lived experiences and past work as a youth worker. We talked about: Louise’s experience of growing up Aboriginal in Australia How Aboriginal kinship structures bring people closer together and what we can learn from this...

Join us in this inspiring episode of The Youth Mentor Podcast as Amanda recaps the 2024 Youth Mentor Conference and shares with you: some of the things that are working well for youth mentors, speakers, coaches, and educators as we head into 2024; some of the insights that the young people during the conference shared with us; some ideas for how you could get started with supporting young people i...

At the age of 25, Olha Ruda founded 10:11 - a mentorship program for high school students in Ukraine or who have fled the country. From a one-person show to now having over 150 mentors, they’ve delivered more than 1300 hours of mentoring.  In this episode you’ll get to hear a snippet of an insightful session lead by Olha at our 2023 Youth Mentor Conference. You’ll hear:  // How she started by hers...

Join us in this inspiring episode of The Youth Mentor Podcast as we sit down with Wil Massara, a visionary social entrepreneur who started his journey at just 11 years old. Wil takes us through his incredible story, from revolutionising youth leadership with the Youth Leadership Academy Australia to consulting for governments and organisations, bridging the intergenerational gap. In this conversat...

In this episode we chat with social entrepreneur Mikhara Ramsing about mentoring young people in regional Australia, writing programs for young people from culturally diverse backgrounds, running a tea social enterprise which funds suicide prevention and Ethnic LGBT+; a national resource platform for culturally and lignuistically diverse LGBTIQA+ communities. She believes stories save lives and ha...

We're joined by Enda Gilbert, an educator, parental burnout practitioner and coach. Enda shared important and practical tips on how we can best support migrant and refugee young people. She then shared her 5 step process for building high quality partnerships with teens - really deep, beautiful things we can all do, whether we're parents, educators or mentors. You'll want your notepad...

In this episode I chat with Jaclyn Cunningham about: the framework of a transformative Rites of Passage experience for teens and their parents, like a Mother-Daughter Retreat how she runs retreats like this tips for facilitators why parents love them and how she makes sure they are inclusive. You can find Jaclyn at http://motherdaughterretreats.com.au Did you love this episode? Let us know on Face...

Meet 3 youth mentors - a former early childhood teacher, a life coach and a UN development worker. People become youth mentors for all sorts of reasons, and come to this work from all sorts of backgrounds. We want to introduce you to 3 of them today. Some have been doing this work for many years and some are new to the youth mentor space. In this episode you'll get to hear from:  Angela Nicol...

One of the things I hear the most from folks who know in their bones that they want to work with young people is that they’re not sure if they’re qualified/good/old/young/perfect enough. So, here are 3 things you need to be a great youth mentor!  Enjoy this short episode with Amanda on her own, giving you a bit of a pep talk and sharing some of the things you do need to connect, engage and ho...

Join us for a thought-provoking episode of The Youth Mentor Podcast, where Amanda sits down with body liberationist and Body Trust coach, Nicola Haggett. In this snippet of a conversation recorded at the 2022 Youth Mentor Conference, they delve into the complex topic of going beyond body positivity and dismantling body hierarchies. Listen in as they discuss the challenges of working with young peo...

In this episode, we're excited to share with you insights from Sarah Found, a youth mentor and researcher who has recently completed a dissertation on helping young people build hope and resilience in the face of ambiguous loss and uncertainty. With the ongoing pandemic causing unprecedented challenges for everyone, particularly for young people, Sarah's work couldn't be more relevant. In this epi...

In this episode, I chat with one of our youth mentors, Reece Anderson, about all sorts of things - it was a big, deep, fun chat!  We covered:  self-leadership and how to bring all of you into your mentoring work telling it like it is to parents and Reece's unique approach  looking at the entire eco-system and environment at home when supporting young people his personal mental healt...

In this episode, find out what your youth mentor archetype is and how to use it to be the best youth mentor you can be for the youth in your community. Understanding this early on can cut your learning curve so much, help you focus where you're going to have the biggest impact and ensure you can support more young people. To deepen the learning in this episode, join us for a masterclass about the...

In this episode, Amanda is joined by licensed therapist and teen resilience coach Gina Nelson. Gina shares about how we can start to help young people to map out their nervous system, catch when they're going into fight or flight mode and self-regulate their emotions and mood. Such an important discussion!  You can find Gina Nelson at authenticgains.com and get her free parent mini-course at...

In this episode of The Youth Mentor Podcast, we chat to Bec Coldicutt from Rebel StarSeeds in Auckland, New Zealand. It's a big episode and we cover a lot, including Bec's previous careers in law and as a teacher and then starting her youth mentoring business, Rebel StarSeeds. We talk about why she left the classroom, managing boundaries with mentees and anyone else involved, and mentoring one-on-...

In this episode we chat with author, coach and mentor Jenna Lee about supporting women and teens to confidently express themselves through writing. Jenna shares her story around being a teen and not knowing how to express herself, how journalling helped transform her life and also about how she got started writing books. Jenna shares her recommendations for getting started with journalling, and ho...

In this episode we chat with Charlotte Pointeaux about holding first moon circles to celebrate and support young people around their first period. Charlotte shares in depth about the magic of circles, how to set up the space so it’s really respectful and open, how to normalise this discussion around periods, how to make sure your circles are inclusive of all genders who might bleed or be going thr...

In this episode we chat with Executive Director of the Youth Leadership Foundation, Janaiha Bennett about mentoring amidst and post pandemic; building resilience through long-term programs; her journey of starting out as a participant at YLF and now being the Executive Director; details on how they deliver their programs and get funding; plus more!  Head to http://shinefromwithin.com.au/the-y...

In this episode Amanda is joined by Grenita Brooks, who doesn’t hold anything back in sharing how she started her not-for-profit for girls, how she then expanded and changed the not for profit to include all genders, how her community and school programs run, how her board of directors get funding and what she wished she knew when she was starting out. Show notes and full transcript: http://shinef...

Know what you need to be aware of, and the work that needs to be done, to ensure we're minimising harm with marginalised youth and the practical steps we can take to ensure we're holding inclusive spaces, from the way we design programs, how we hold space and even the venues we book! Topics covered include disability, race, gender, intersectionality and more. This is a powerful snippet of a longer...