Mentoring by Design

Montezuma Youth Alliance focuses on serving youth of all races, backgrounds, genders, and orientations in our community. We encourage empowerment by providing spaces where youth can be together with trusted adults, as well as opportunities for youngre and older kids to spend time together (a rare thing in today’s school system.)

Mentoring during Mancos Wellbeing Project Meetings (MWP), is teen-engaged up-stream suicide prevention. During MWP meetings, we cook, eat and clean up together, do check ins that allow us to get to know each other better, and support the young people in building projects that are related to the strategy of “Connectedness.” This strategy is one of six, outlined by our partners at the Montezuma Health Department’s SAFE Coalition; a branch of the Colorado National Collaborative (national, data-driven suicide prevention.) The currecnt project is a Teen Mental Health day, where participants are working on gathering stories about their experiences with mental health issues, in hopes of increasing awareness of adults in ther lives, in order to increase support and access to resources.

During Skate Nights we (the adult mentors) work to have good communication, boundaries and common rules for all youth involved. We work to engage youth in physical activity, where they are not on screens, but spending energy outside and increasing self esteem by trying new challenges.

Snowboard Outreach Society is the winter time outdoor activity of MYA. We collaborate with The Hive to get 7 youth from the Mancos School (grades 7-9) to Snowboard at Purgatory for 5 Wednesdays in a row. SOS is a school incentive program; participating youth are required to get all of their teachers to fill out Progress Reports in order for them to go snowboarding that week, which is a great opportunity for youth to work hard to get and keep their effort high in any given class. Being a part of SOS means the lift ticket, outdoor gear, snowboards and transportation is free. The cost to the families involved is minimal; and if a family cannot pay, we fund raise for scholarships so the program is accessible to all. The SOS Program focuses on the Core Values of: Courage, Wisdom, Honesty, discipline, integrity, compassion, and humility. Utilizing real life examples as well as the challenges of learning how to snowboard, we can cement these values together, encouraging self-respect and uplifting others. If you would like to donate to the SOS Program, please call or text Jorie! We are in need of $800 to support current (2023/24 season) youth scholarships. Thank you!