Choose to Mentor and Perpetuate Positive Outcomes

Mentorship and leadership can be defined in several different ways and concepts. One of the purest ways of defining leadership is mentorship. Unlike parenting, leadership and mentorship can be quite similar and at times one in the same. Parenting most often is assumed by birthright and can be considered more of a responsibility or perhaps an obligation. Moreover, good parenting can be a direct correlation to the child (mentee) and to the parent (mentor).

Mentorship is something slightly different in that mentoring is providing leadership, supervision, or companionship to someone who has nothing to offer the mentor. True mentorship is to provide someone with assistance and the mentor knows that the mentee has no way of repaying the mentor.

The reward to the mentor is simply seeing the success of the mentee. Mentorship is paying it forward and giving someone your time, your talent, your expertise, and

your unique in-depth perspective of years of experience.

“I thought advancement was based entirely on competence. I later found out it was more about taking someone under your wing and demystifying the path of leadership,” said Gerald Simon, Oakland Fire Chief who is an Executive Development Institute instructor.

As a youth, many have never seen or became affiliated with a fire truck or the fire service. Mentorship can never be overstated in the Fire Service. It begs to offer the importance of mentors being needed today more than ever before throughout the industry.

Community Risk Reduction (CRR) chooses to mentor. CRR specialist Captain D.Y. Smith provides mentorship to the Boys and Girls Club of South America.

Captain Smith provides several classes on CPR and Fire Extinguishment to assist with fire safety. This is when our youth are often first introduced to fire safety education. Here is where our youth can develop an understanding that safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Furthermore, the MFRD Fire Safety Expo is a safety exhibition where hundreds of our youth are introduced to the effects of fire. This is an opportunity to build a long-lasting, positive impression and begin to create and mold a safer environment within the community.

“Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had a real positive influence in his or her life. I don’t care what you do for a living. If you do it well, I’m sure there was someone cheering you on or showing you the way. A Mentor…..” —Actor Denzel Washington

CRR CHOOSES TO MENTOR. The City of Mobile has a phenomenal Youth Empowered for Success (YES) Initiative. The YES Initiative provides a valuable resource of the training opportunity, mentoring, and enrichment to our youth.

Years afterward, some of our youth have come back to the office to share their experience with CRR Specialist Captain Sam Allen. Many have gone off to become engineers, educators, and even work in public safety. They come back to share how valuable mentoring is and the benefit it was to their career path and the lifelong lessons they learned.

Safety is ultimately a responsibility that the entire community can participate in. Often a kind word or a friendly gesture can perpetuate a host of positive outcomes. CRR works to create this type of environment as early as possible. The very best way to do this is by mentoring.