POLARIS MENTOR - Basic Principles
- Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future as a present challenge.
- Trust between youth and adult (mentor - mentee) is essential, the foundation on which all other principles rest, the glue and beginning point.
- Competence makes a difference; youth should be helped to be good at something, and especially at schoolwork.
- Time is an ally - working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.
- Self-discipline and control can be taught.
- The cognitive competence of youth can be enhanced; they can be taught skills and strategies for life management and coping with the complex array of demands placed on them by family, school, and community.
- Feelings should be nurtured; shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others.
- The group is very important; it can be a major source of instruction in growing up.
- Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and competence to youth, whose lives often seem chaotic.
- The body is the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.
- Communities are important for youth, but the uses and benefits must be experienced to be learned.
- In life, and particularly in growing up, a youth should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for tomorrow.

POLARIS MENTOR MODEL
Youth are not broken and in need of fix. Each has within them the capacity for healthy and optimal life experience. Often the very traits which may have led to problems are underlying strengths with positive intentions at their core.
Learning & positively applying one's resources- with the support of a caring adult relationship- is the fundamental curriculum of a mentor - mentee relationship.
This assumption of innate potential and attraction to "a successful & healthy life" is at the heart of the Polaris resiliency model. The significance of a decent caring adult in a youth's life is easy to accept, and appears to be overwhelmingly supported by decades of resiliency research. TRUST is a fundamental principle upon which this relationship is developed. Polaris believes in supporting this relationship; through training in skill and personal development for mentors, as well as providing shared opportunities for life affirming experiences through adventure based curriculum . This stated, we acknowledge that NO amount of professional training can make an adult worthy of the trust of a youth, or capable of generating it. This ability, this relationship potential, is prior to technique, to theory, to technical knowledge.
The realization of this truth is our primary goal.
Youth are not broken and in need of fix. Each has within them the capacity for healthy and optimal life experience. Often the very traits which may have led to problems are underlying strengths with positive intentions at their core.
Learning & positively applying one's resources- with the support of a caring adult relationship- is the fundamental curriculum of a mentor - mentee relationship.
This assumption of innate potential and attraction to "a successful & healthy life" is at the heart of the Polaris resiliency model. The significance of a decent caring adult in a youth's life is easy to accept, and appears to be overwhelmingly supported by decades of resiliency research. TRUST is a fundamental principle upon which this relationship is developed. Polaris believes in supporting this relationship; through training in skill and personal development for mentors, as well as providing shared opportunities for life affirming experiences through adventure based curriculum . This stated, we acknowledge that NO amount of professional training can make an adult worthy of the trust of a youth, or capable of generating it. This ability, this relationship potential, is prior to technique, to theory, to technical knowledge.
The realization of this truth is our primary goal.
"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
-Helen Keller