Amisha has given so much to StepStones as a committed and creative volunteer. Bilingual in French and English (and also a native speaker of Gujarati), she was matched as a mentor with Arline, a young person at StepStones, by Connection Coordinator Ebere. As Arline was born and raised in Congo and is French speaking, she is greatly benefitting from a caring mentor who also speaks French.
Amisha raves about Arline, a full-time student completing her first semester at university, who is “quite a superstar…optimistic, resilient and a joy to work with.” Amisha remarks of herself that while she doesn’t particularly enjoy motivating people, she is a “total support person” for those that want to change their lives for the better and will make herself available to help. A trained facilitator, Amisha also volunteered to lead a mental health session wherein she shared her daughter’s personal story around depression. With her daughter’s permission, the story was first shared with colleagues and staff at her workplace for Bell Let’s Talk Day. She later repurposed the workshop for young people in our program to open the dialogue around depression, which is essential to identifying early signs of crises and seeking assistance. In the inclusive and welcoming space she created, youth were very responsive.
“We still deal with stigma around mental health.”
“We live in a system where accessing support for ‘invisible’ mental health issues is hard.” We are so grateful for her time and dedication to hosting this important workshop so we can keep the dialogue open. Merci Amisha, and all our incredible volunteers and mentors for the time and care you commit to helping young people like Arline thrive!
