Interview with Antquan Smith

 1.)     How do you determine who can attend Sea Haven?

Sea Haven Street Outreach program have Federal procedures that we follow which only allow youth from the ages of 17 to 21 to access our facility resources, but if we have any referrals were the youth is to young we follow our Safe Place procedures.

 2.)     Do you think mentoring at Sea Haven will improve their behavior and social skills?

I believe that it will improve their behavior and social skills because they are interacting with youth from different backgrounds.

 3.)     How did Sea Haven get discovered?

•	Sea Haven was incorporated in 1980 and is registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit agency.
•	Sea Haven Inc is a member of the Youth and Family Services Network. YFSN provides training, consultation, funding, and advocacy support for members. The Sea Haven Executive Director is currently the South Carolina state representative for the YFSN Board. Information about the network is available at www.yfsn.org

4.)     Do you usually see an increase in behavior in the kids when people mentor?

We do see an increase in behavior because the mentees are usually in the same age range as our clients.

 5.)    Are there many behavior issues with the children?

            There are different behavior issues with each client that comes into our facility. Each client comes from diverse background when it comes to family issues. 

 6.)    How often do you get applications for children to attend Sea Haven?

            The drop in center is non-residential and most of our clients are referred to our program from other agencies or word of mouth.

 7.)    Do you think there is enough awareness about Sea Haven?

            Sea Haven does a great job with awareness about the organization and is always seeking different ways to raise awareness about Sea haven and also the youth that we serve.

 8.)    Are there usually many volunteers that help at Sea Haven?

            We have a lot of support with volunteers, but the one issue we run into is the volunteers outside schedule which sometimes conflict with what we are doing

 9.)    Is Sea Haven a private organization?

            Sea haven is not a private organization

Reflection

The new knowledge I have gained through research about mentoring children at young ages is, it can have positive outcomes in their future.  Mentoring helps overcome tough obstacles, and it can improve needed life skills.

I am volunteering at Safe Haven in Longs, South Carolina.  Safe Haven is a non-profit organization, and it provides a place where children can stay during the day while their parents are working.  The children’s parents usually need financial assistance, and have nowhere else to take them during the day.  Paige Gause and I volunteer at Safe Haven every Friday after school for two or three hours.  The person who we contacted through Safe Haven to start volunteering was Mr. Antquan, and he stays with us every Friday.  When we volunteer, we try to be educational and entertaining for the kids.  The kids enjoy reading, so we go to the library and get new books every week.  The kids like to read one on one with us, and then we read to them.

I have been going to Safe Haven the past three weeks, and it has given me a different perspective on people and my surroundings.  I have met new people through this mentoring process.  One thing I need to improve on is being more social with the workers at Safe Haven.  I will improve on being more social by asking more questions and being more interactive.