Our stories

School student Blake* has had a difficult path, with both his mum and dad absent from his life, and struggles to understand his emotions.

However, with the support of his Rise mentor and a tight-knit school community, he’s starting to turn a corner.

Blake is a soccer-loving kindy kid, full of energy and silliness.

However, despite his usual joyful demeanour, he occasionally has moments where his big emotions get the better of him, and he can act out in anger at school.

Blake has experienced a lot of upheaval, losing his mother to an overdose when he was very young, then he lost his dad, who was incarcerated, and he’s grappling with a lot of emotions.

Luckily however, Blake has a supportive teacher and school, which is how he came to be referred to SHINE for Kids Rise Mentoring.

Blake’s teacher could see that he was struggling in his first year of school and, knowing the situation his family was in and how this could be affecting him, reached out to us to receive our specialised support.

Rise mentors have in depth knowledge of the justice system and the unique challenges families affected by it face.

While Blake has just started his journey with Rise, he has already built a trusting relationship with his mentor.

“His teacher tells us that he’s always super excited on the days I come to the school,” says his mentor.

“Blake enjoys his Rise sessions because he gets a say in what we do. We’ve worked on areas that he finds difficult through his own interests, which makes it engaging for him.

“We are working on accepting that all emotions are important, that they’re trying to tell us something, but it’s important to pause before reacting.

“His love for soccer and sports inspired us to start a game we call ‘Catching Anger’ where we throw a ball, and each time one of us gets a catch we state something that makes us feel angry.”

This game gives Blake a safe space to express anger and explore triggers with his mentor so they can create strategies to help him regulate his emotions.

Together, Blake’s mentor and teacher are working on setting goals to increase his confidence in navigating big feelings and ensure he has the support he needs to thrive at school, as well as a network of trusted adults he can rely on.

*Names and images changed to protect participants. 

The Department of Social Services supports this program.