PFP is All About Peer Listening, Meaningful Connections, and Building Relationships

Jennifer Vinck, School Counselor and PFP Advisor
October 9, 2017

The start of another school year means a new group of senior mentors are ready to build connections in our community through the People Finding People (PFP) program.

PFP was born over 15 years ago with the intent to help transition our 9th grade students into the Cretin-Derham Hall community. It has evolved from a couple of seniors meeting with 9th grade students after school to the current program of 23 senior mentors meeting with over one hundred 9th and 10th grade students in a mentoring role on a weekly basis.

PFP is a peer listening class in which junior students are invited to apply for the senior PFP Course.  After an interview process, 23 students were chosen to complete a very eclectic group of mentors for the 2017-2018 school year. Our hope is to create a class that resembles the student body. After being selected, these students, many of whom have never crossed paths, begin their journey toward being mentors.

In June, we meet for extensive training on how to be peer listeners. This includes how to listen, how to make meaningful connections, and build relationships.

We follow up with an overnight retreat in the fall which always proves to be very impactful for our senior mentors. During the retreat they get a chance to practice their mentoring and peer listening skills while connecting and strengthening the bond between each other.

"The PFP retreat was incredible, perhaps life changing to some of the mentors in the group.  It was an intense overnight visit, full of learning and deeper understanding towards other classmates as we all shared our stories of hardships that we have dealt with in the past.  We came together as a group of peers and came out as a family."-Henry Soucheray'18

By October, our mentors have introduced the program to all 9th grade students and have offered to meet with them.  The 9th and 10th grade students are able to sign up for the program where they will be assigned a senior mentor who will meet with them on a weekly basis during the 9th and 10th grade homeroom. It essentially becomes a big brother-big sister relationship in which the students talk about anything from academics to the movie they saw last weekend. Over the years we have witnessed students form relationships that continue into adulthood.

Any 9th or 10th grade student that is still interested in working with a PFP mentor can contact their school counselor.

CDH counselors, Mr. Michael Brewer and Mrs. Jennifer Vinck are the advisors for the PFP mentors.