One of Felicity’s part time clinical staff, Scott Gielow, has been working with a few of our paraprofessionals to start incorporating a weekly mentoring program with a few Felicity students. With Mr. Gielow’s extensive experience through agencies such as Allendale Association, Crossroads Counseling and Leyden Township Family Services, he is able to provide consistent support to our mentoring staff, Mr. Farca and Mr. Townsend to maintain guidelines for mentoring such as: academic goals, building social skills, developing new and healthy interests in and outside of school.
Scott also added the importance of mentoring for Felicity students by stating, “Mentoring is about building a connection with students- and to assist them identify and work on personal goals. These services take place outside of school hours, and on weekends- based on agreement with the mentor’s and students availability. Mentors create an individual plan with the student, based on that students interests and needs- but also in collaboration with parents and family, with family input being a vital component.”
In fact, one our mentored students who has been working with Mr. Townsend remotely over the past month for weekly Zoom calls has had his family notice some of the benefits during the mentoring sessions. This students grandma shared that her grandchild can “truly be himself for the two hour zoom calls with Mr. Townsend and looks up to him”. The family is hopeful for having the opportunity to incorporate in-person outings once it is safe to do so.