Bridging Resources through Peer-Mentor Support
Beyond the need for qualified and caring healthcare staff, individuals with newly acquired disabilities are eager to connect with others who have been through the same experience. The peer mentoring program provides appropriate emotional and instrumental support to people with spinal cord and brain injury. It links people with newly acquired disabilities with mentors who share similar characteristics, such as level of injury, interests, future goals, past experiences and demographics. Mentors work with mentees to identify personal goals that address employment, education and independent living. Goals range from attending needed physical therapy sessions to learning to make their home more physically accessible and to registering for college.
While setting and working toward achieving goals is the core component of the peer mentor program, the importance of the emotional support that peer mentors provide cannot be negated. In addition to the more obvious benefit to the mentees, there is a secondary benefit of increasing the quality of life of our peer mentors. The program shows participants they can continue to live in productive ways. Mentors receive employment and leadership training and experience personal gains that stem from mentoring another individual and seeing that person’s growth.
Funding sources
Coloplast
Sisyphus Foundation
Contact information:
Mentor Program Coordinator
Telephone: (773) 522-6689
Fax: (773) 522-6650
Email: extendedservices@sinai.org
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