Our stories

These are self-portraits of children in our Rise school mentoring program created for a ‘What’s Under the Surface’ activity.

In the activity, students draw half of what they think the world sees and half of who they truly are (their values, what they enjoy and special things about them that people might not know or understand).

This activity helps children develop a positive sense of self and reflect on all the good things about themselves. Of note, this year our team member at this location has more girls in the Rise program than ever.

While girls sometimes express having difficulty at school differently from boys, they benefit just as much from our program.

Our mentor, who works with the girls who drew these pictures, said: “I’d love to see more people aware of the fact that just because a young girl is quiet and doesn’t cause disruption in class, doesn’t mean they are coping as well as they could be”.