We are thrilled to announce that our Mentor of the Month accolade for October, goes to Craig Brett!
Ruth – our Mentor Project Coordinator – explains her nomination:
“It is an absolute pleasure to have Craig in the Mentoring team here at LOOK.
Craig is an incredible communicator – both verbally and in his writing.
He listens to the questions or the views being expressed and his responses and feedback always address what he hears. This sounds straightforward but it is a skill to be able to do this in a charismatic, supportive and informative way, and Craig does all this.
Craig has a one-to-one mentee on the project who he is supporting as he prepares and considers his future education and work plans. Craig is researching the topics and commits to this partnership fantastically.
He is also supporting LOOK in many other projects – from being a regular at Mentor team events and meetings, being a friend and support to his fellow mentors and most recently, contributing to the LOOK panel events on developing Relationships and Sex Education for VIPs.
We want to say thank you so much to Craig – he always makes LOOK a more effective place to be, with his commitment and engaging communication. Well done and you’re massively appreciated Craig!”
“I would like to send my congratulations to Craig on this achievement. He has been very helpful with me and answered any questions I had to the best of his ability. Craig has been a nice guy to talk to and get to know in general life on top of his university and career advice.” Craig’s Mentee.
Meet Craig
“I’m Craig, I’m a LOOK Mentor from Hertfordshire, working in London as a software developer. In my spare time, I’m an avid gamer and reader, and also enjoy keeping active. I play sports (such as goalball for the Cambridge Dons goalball club) and I’m also in the (slightly delayed) process of training for my black belt in Japenese Ju-Jitsu. I came across LOOK rather by happenstance, when they were looking for new mentors 18 months ago. With some encouragement from both my mum and a close friend, I decided to apply.
Why I decided to become a LOOK Mentor
I liked the sound of becoming a mentor when I heard about it. I have been registered blind since birth, and when I was growing up there wasn’t really anything of this sort in existence. A lot of the advice I was getting was coming from sighted people, which was great, but having a visually impaired perspective was something that was missing.
I was fortunate enough to have a close family friend who turned out to be a sort of unofficial mentor. Being blind and yet doing well in her professional career was a source of encouragement, as well as her offering advice and support for me and my family, including making us venture outside of our comfort zones from time to time, I feel as though this made a difference to me growing up.
When I heard about LOOK’s mentoring program, I hoped I’d be able to make a positive difference to other young people with a visual impairment in the same way.
What’s it like being a LOOK Mentor?
Being a Look mentor is an interesting and rewarding experience. I’m lucky to be working with a great mentee who is both engaged and responsive, as well as being friendly and posing interesting questions and things for us to chat over and think about.
The thought that I might be contributing to making a positive difference to young people is a reward in itself. And lastly but by no means least, the LOOK staff and other mentors are great. In particular, the community that has built up around the mentoring has been a great source of useful tips and tricks, friendship, and support, which have been particularly important to me this year. So thank you LOOK for making this all happen.
Any tips for other mentors?
I believe that the mentors do a great job, so it’s hard to think of anything I can tell them that they won’t already be absolutely nailing already. I guess if I was going to advise anything, it’s to keep an open ear and listen to your mentee and allow them to lead the conversation when they want to, leading you to goals that they may or may not know they want to achieve, then you can both work on achieving that. It’s hard when put on the spot and asked your goals to always come up with a complete answer; it might be a specific situation or concern that comes up in day-to-day life that reveals it.”
Find out more about Mentoring
We are the leading mentoring organisation in the UK for visually impaired young people. Mentoring can help increase your confidence, learn new skills and make new connections.
If you are visually impaired, 18-29 and have a passion to help others, have you learned hacks along the way that can help other young people with a visual impairment, and are proud of your difference and have some wisdom to share, then we’d love to hear from you.
Or if you think you could benefit from the support of a mentor, are aged 11-29 and at school, university / college or looking for work, we have a mentor ready to help you achieve your potential.
