According to Constable Paul Lampe, Z Energy’s (Z) Good in the Hood programme has helped deliver stability and mentoring to hundreds of Taranaki youth through its support of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Constable Lampe is the Project Leader, Youth Development for the Taranaki Police. He has done his time on the beat, but for the last 15 years, he has been focused on supporting youth. Lampe went into youth aid and development and focused on creating positive community outcomes.
Part of his day job is running Big Brothers, Big Sisters, a charity that has received ongoing support from Z’s Good in the Hood programme and one that Lampe implemented in Taranaki after seeing it in action first-hand in Nelson.
Big Brothers, Big Sisters offers community- and school-based mentoring for rangatahi. It works by matching adult volunteers with young people, and they spend time together doing things they both enjoy for one to three hours once a week. Children are matched between the ages of six and ten; once they are matched, they can stay on the programme until they are 18. An in-school mentoring programme has also been set up for one hour a week during the school term.
When Lampe first saw the programme in action in Nelson, where it had been transplanted from Canada, he immediately saw its potential. Not only that, but plenty of research showed the positive impact of mentoring – and the earlier, the better.
“It’s a simple idea. It’s about doing ordinary things to create extraordinary people,” said Lampe.
“We set up relationships that help to provide stability and opportunity for families facing adversity. We’re big on the fact that this isn’t about entertainment but time and relationships. There’s an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, and this is that idea at its most perceptible.”
Most outings occur in the community, at a library, park, beach or other accessible facilities. Some of the relationships endure for many years, with over 500 matched in 15 years, ultimately impacting the children involved.
“We’ve just closed a match that went on for 7.5 years. The mentor had been in the child’s life longer than not being involved in their life. Some of our matches endure for up to a decade, and some continue long after our involvement.”
Lampe explained that these become significant relationships, like a second family for the children involved.
“We had one volunteer recently with his children, and when one of his children turned five, he wanted the Big Brothers, Big Sisters child to attend his birthday party. It shows its strong ripple effect – it’s about placing a community around them.”
Big Brothers and Big Sisters don’t receive government funding, so business sponsorship is essential. A single match costs between $2,000 to $2,500 per year, and Lampe affirms that’s part of the reason why it’s so important to have engaged corporate supporters.
Lampe said that Z had been such a massive help to the programme and that the service station was involved, actively partaking in the community.
One of the team members at a local Taranaki Z site recently signed up to become a school-based mentor, and Z has supported that staff member to have an hour of his working day each week to go to the school and spend some time with their mentee.
“We have about 20-30 kids on our waiting list, so the number of volunteer mentors available is our only restriction regarding meeting demand. It would be awesome to have more businesses like Z who would consider allowing staff to become school-based mentors.”
Lampe reiterated that it had a huge impact, and it’s only an hour a week to ‘fill the bucket’ of one of the kids.
