As a volunteer for the Chamberlain’s Childrens Center, Leigh
Dietz’s time with a 13-year-old girl she mentors isn’t spent
talking about traumas from the youngster’s childhood.
Hollister – As a volunteer for the Chamberlain’s Childrens Center, Leigh Dietz’s time with a 13-year-old girl she mentors isn’t spent talking about traumas from the youngster’s childhood.
Instead, they spend their weekly time together focusing on things common to most 13-year-old girls.
“She’s a teenager,” Dietz said. “We’re talking about boys, boys, boys and shopping and music.”
Dietz is one of around 10 volunteers serving as one-on-one mentors for the children at Chamberlain’s, a home for children who cannot be placed in conventional foster care.
Dietz began volunteering with the center two years ago after she had heard about Chamberlain’s through her husband.
A strong advocate for community service, Dietz volunteers with many other nonprofits, including Emmaus House and Community Pantry.
“I think everyone needs to give back somehow,” she said.
She was drawn to Chamberlain’s because of the services they provide, offering a last-chance home for kids with emotional or behavioral problems.
After volunteering, Dietz was assigned to mentor the then-11-year-old girl, whose name cannot be given for confidentiality purposes.
Dietz is one of the center’s longest-serving mentors, said Carlos Rodrigues, who works as the program’s clinical director.
“She’s a prime example of the commitment,” Rodrigues said. “She has been a mentor a long time for this child, and it’s proven to be a very positive experience for both.”
In the two years since she started mentoring, her relationship with the girl has grown and developed, Dietz said.
“When we first starting getting together, she didn’t want me to know anything about her,” Dietz said. “She has grown up. She’s becoming a little lady.”
Dietz said she takes the teenage girl on various outings during their weekly time together: They go to the park, or to lunch, or shopping at Target – a personal favorite for the girl.
“It’s like hanging out with your little sister. What does your little sister want to do?” Dietz said.
Through the mentor program, which Dietz compared to a Big Brothers Big Sisters program, the two spend their time together talking about whatever’s on the young girl’s mind.
Dietz said she stays away from some activities, such as going to a movie, where the two cannot talk.
Besides providing positive role models, the mentors give the children living at Chamberlain’s a change of pace in the program.
“There’s definite structure here,” Dietz said. “I’m the ‘fun.’ This is a little extra special thing.”
While the young girl Dietz mentors has that opportunity for the fun, because of limited mentors, not all of the kids at the center have an outside adult with whom to spend time.
Dietz said she was picking up the girl one day when a young boy at the center came up and asked when he would get a mentor, too.
“We need people from the outside,” Dietz said. “It’s one-on-one time, so they feel special. This is something special they get to do.”
