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Meet Vicki Condon: The Mentor Helping Thousands Of Kids

"When more young people die by suicide than any other cause, we need to act" - by Alley Pascoe
  • 22 Aug 2019
Meet Vicki Condon: The Mentor Helping Thousands Of Kids

Vicki Condon was awarded the Mentor Award at the inaugural marie claire and Bumble Glass Ceiling Awards for establishing youth mentoring foundation Raise. Since it's inception in 2008 Raise has helped more than 5400 young Australians by matching at-risk kids with volunteer mentors.

"I’m not really a proud person,” admits Vicki Condon, wiping tears from her eyes while accepting a Glass Ceiling Award for establishing youth mentoring foundation Raise. “But I’m really proud of this award.”

Condon, 51, calls Raise her “midlife crisis”. Having trained as a counsellor after a decade-long corporate career, she first came up with the idea for the organisation when she turned 40 and “took off to Byron Bay to sit on the beach for a week”. In Byron, Condon wrote an entire business plan. But when she returned home to Sydney, she put the document in her bottom drawer, suffering a crisis of confidence.

It took a tragedy to turn Raise into a reality. In 2008, Condon’s family experienced the death by suicide of a 14-year-old friend. The day of his funeral, she pulled out the business plan and vowed to do something about Australia’s youth mental health crisis. “I thought, if I could just help one young person,  it would be so worth it,” she recalls.

That was 11 years ago. Since launching, Raise has helped more than 5400 young Australians by simply matching at-risk kids with volunteer mentors.

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Mid-year is a pretty special time in our programs. We begin to see and hear moments of connection between our mentors and their mentees 🤝 These might be small instances of mutual recognition or a deep understanding between the match. All are significant for the progress they represent to the individual. One of our mentees (not pictured) said: "I always look forward to Thursdays now, it's become my favourite day. I don't have anyone to talk to in my life, but I know on Thursdays my mentor will be there to listen." 🙌👂💛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #RaiseFoundation #TheDifferenceAMentorMakes #YouthMentoring #RaiseVillage #Volunteering

After finishing the six-month program, mentees leave feeling empowered, capable and with goals – and hope – for the future.

“We’ve had young people who experience anxiety, self-harmers and kids whose parents are in jail. Watching these young people shine at the [Raise] graduation is amazing. The difference that a mentor can make is remarkable,” says Condon, who wants Raise to be in every public secondary school by 2024. 

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She's done it again! Our CEO and Founder, Vicki Condon proudly accepted the Mentor Award at Marie Claire 2019 Glass Ceiling Awards this afternoon, presented by Olivia Ruello, CEO of Business Chicks. The Mentor Award was for a woman who has supported and championed others. Vicki received the award for being committed to mentoring and providing support to young people at risk of disengaging. A snippet from Vicki's acceptance speech we'd love to share with you: "I would love for all of you to look out for where you can mentor others, because none of us can achieve greatness without having good people walking alongside us who have already walked the path." ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "Why would you not go and build a village around the young people you know, to make sure you're supporting them?" Read more via link in our bio 💙 #MCGlassCeiling #RaiseFoundation #TheDifferenceAMentorMakes #LettersToMyMentor

At the marie claire and Bumble Glass Ceiling Awards, we celebrated the game changers, the trailblazers and the innovators fighting for gender equality in the workplace. This article appeared in the September issue of marie claire.

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Alley Pascoe
Alley Pascoe
Alley Pascoe is contributor to marie claire Australia. She spends her days interviewing inspirational women, including career highlights Kasey Chambers, Serena Williams and Julia Roberts (for seven minutes on the phone).

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