A Note From Our Staff

Caregiver Appreciation Day

​A few months ago, a caregiver called me and told me that she was no longer interested in being apart of the BEST Kids Mentoring Program. Though she wanted her daughter to remain a BEST Kids mentee, she was tired of feeling unappreciated and ignored while her daughter seemingly received all of the benefits of being in our program.

Caregivers are a huge part of our program and help to make BEST Kids the organization it is today. While mentoring relationships are primarily between the mentor and mentee, this connection is only part of what makes mentoring with BEST Kids so special. Our caregivers - while not an official part of the mentoring match - support our mentoring relationships immensely. Their willingness to open their homes to allow strangers to come in and build a relationship with youth they have sworn to protect allows us to keep our program afloat. The BEST Kids team is extremely grateful for the trust they have put in us and our wonderful mentors.

Our caregivers wear many hats. In addition to being guardians they are sometimes educators, nursemaids, friends, confidants, and much more. This is often thankless work. But still, our caregivers go the extra mile every month to make sure our mentees are involved in events and connected to their mentors and the BEST Kids staff. Without these measures many of our mentors would have a much harder time reaching their mentees and building and maintaining a stable relationship with them.

With this in mind, we want to publicly thank our caregivers this month. BEST Kids appreciates the time and dedication that each and every one of our caregivers spend to make sure that their youth can participate in the program. Having an involved guardian or caregiver who is willing and able to push their mentee in the right direction can be all that it takes to nurture a successful mentoring relationship!

The caregiver that I mentioned inspired Caregiver Appreciation Day. We must be reminded that our caregivers sacrifice a lot of time and effort for our mentees. We must thank them every day for pushing our mentees to be the best individuals they can be and allowing our youth to be a part of a program that will help form a future beyond measure! Thank you to our mentors, mentees and especially our caregivers for everything that you do!

Doreen Addo
BEST Kids Staff
Mentoring Support Specialist