Pamela Cookey’s BAME Ballers Mintridge Mentoring Programme

Young people and their families have spent the last few months adapting to an unfamiliar set of circumstances, that they have had very little control over. Along with those circumstances, comes a lot of challenges for young people and the need to cope with uncertainty and be resilient when faced with these challenges. However, at the Mintridge Foundation, we have spent the last few months looking forward to some very positive mentoring calls for our former England Netball captain and Mintridge Ambassador Pamela Cookey. Pamela has been able to maintain a consistent and extremely positive Mentoring Programme, with her two BAME Ballers, who were successfully selected by Pamela to take part in this special Programme in July.

During lockdown, Pamela came up with the idea to donate her time to mentor two young netballers, who were nominated by their schools and peers, to take part in the mentoring Programme. The two mentees were selected by Pamela, to receive three months of remote mentoring with her, to help support them with their netball, academic studies or personal lives. Pamela’s two mentees have been logging in to join their calls with Pamela, every fortnight for the last three months and have made huge improvements towards their own goals and aspirations, despite not being able to take part in sport and physical activity in their normal club and school settings.

Pamela’s mentee from Moulton School in Northamptonshire, has written journals after each of her calls to reflect on the impact of the calls and how this has helped her during this strange time and on her return to school. We are so pleased that through these journals, Pamela’s mentee has talked about the topics she has covered with Pamela, including personal targets like learning to cook for her family, working on certain academic subjects and organisation skills. Along with this, they talked a lot about sport specific topics like fitness and nutrition, netball specific skills and drills and how to create a positive growth mindset when dealing with pressure at a competition.

Pamela’s mentee said that she hoped to make Pamela proud with her future achievements and ,“I feel grateful I had the opportunity to know her, but also to learn from someone who has achieved what I hope I will be able to do. I feel I managed to absorb lots of advice and knowledge whilst getting to know Pamela as well… I am very grateful as I feel energised and spurred on to continue with my sports.”

Pamela has also had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to her mentees family during these calls, and they said, “As a family we are grateful for the wonderful opportunity made available to Summer. Summer is very keen on pursuing a sports career and this opportunity has just spurred her on. We had got used to Summer taking part in her mentoring sessions, so we are sad it has come to an end. However, we are thankful to all the people who made this a reality.”

As an older student, Pamela’s mentee from Notting Hill and Ealing School, has spent the last couple of months planning ahead for her future and for the career she is working towards. This includes having to select options for her A Levels and looking ahead to how this might impact her university options. Pamela has been guiding her mentee through these choices and getting her to think about how she can control the controllables and spend some time planning her goals and setting them up ready for a long-term action plan. Pamela’s mentee has recently moved schools in order to pursue some of these goals, which she decided to do after discussing with her family. As well as this, Pamela has been trying to support her mentee with netball specific advice, as she eagerly awaits the return to high level netball, when it returns to normal. Pamela has drawn on her own experience, not only as a former England netball captain, but also as someone who has worked alongside a professional international career and how those organisation skills, experience working within a team and ability to set goals and stick to specific targets, can be applied and learned by her mentees too.

Pamela’s mentee Izzie said, “Pamela has shown me I can continue playing the sport I love to a high level without my education suffering...it's all about balancing my time and staying organised (something I previously struggled with!)”.

As part of our Programmes, it is always amazing to hear how the whole family engage in the mentoring process. This is what Izzie’s mum had to say about the Programme, “Izzie’s always admired Pamela and has watched many recordings of her during her elite playing days. We’re delighted that the Mintridge Foundation has given Izzie such a great opportunity, not only to meet one of her idols, but also to learn from her. Pamela’s given Izzie great tips about coping with pressure, which help her now with life choices and will also help on the court when she returns to playing high-level netball. Izzie admires how Pamela balances success at the highest level of sport with her working life and manages to have a happy and rounded personal life too. Thank you Pamela and thank you Mintridge Foundation.“ 

As part of the Mentoring Programme, Pamela has been increasingly positive about the situation the students are in at the moment, especially not being able to play and take part in their sports as they would have liked to and having different lessons being taught in school. Pamela has been setting the students targets to aim for and setting them challenges that are achievable within their own homes and gardens. Although the two mentees are unable to participate in competitions at the moment, they can work towards the more tactical elements, with netball analysis and research ways to improve their game from home, in preparation for the new season starting.

Pamela has helped to develop the mentee’s confidence and resilience during their Programme and inspired them to think about how they reach the goals that they have set out for themselves. The two students have been in an incredible position and are the only two students in the UK, at the moment, to have been involved in a Mintridge Mentoring Programme with Pamela during this time. Pamela has delivered a lot of mentoring Programmes in the past, as a Mintridge Ambassador and each have been centred around the needs of Pamela’s mentees and what will benefit them the most moving forward.

We are so glad that Pamela selected these two mentees to be a part of this Programme. After the final Programme calls, Pamela said that she had enjoyed working with the two mentees and they were,“ Working with these two over the past 3 months has been such a highlight and to hear theirs and their families testimonies of our time together and what we have achieved is just wonderful…two fabulous young ladies who are beautiful on the inside & out, smart, keen to keep learning & become their best selves…sad our time has come to an end but will be keeping an eye out for them both…So glad I could help in some way, on their, I’m sure very successful and fulfilled journeys.”

At The Mintridge Foundation, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to hear the stories and experience the power of our exceptional Mintridge role models. We know that having a role model who can support you, influence you and offer you advice that can help you on your own journey and pathway, can be extremely beneficial. We are pleased that these two mentees could take part in this extra special BAME Ballers Programme and could benefit from Pamela’s experience and knowledge. We know that hearing the words of advice from someone that has already successfully made it through the pathway that you are trying to follow, can boost your mindset and attitude towards future challenges, help you bounce back from setbacks and also help you to understand that sometimes those journey’s aren’t the smoothest and that you should never give up!

Pamela has been able to instil a positive mindset on her mentees so that in the future they can control what they can and make a plan to move forward with the feedback they have. We always celebrate the success of our amazing Mintridge Family and we are so pleased that our Programme came to an end during Black History Month, we will continue to shout about the impact our amazing role models have on the young people they work with for many years to come.

If you are interested in a Programme with Pamela Cookey or any of our other Mintridge Ambassadors, or you are interested in a Virtual or Physical Programme with one of our team of inspirational Ambassadors, then please get in touch via the Mintridge website at www.mintridgefoundation.org.uk or with Katie at katie@mintridge.org.uk

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