In the quiet halls of a Kingston church, something unexpected is unfolding—not just sermons and hymns, but the architecture of new lives.
At the St Andrew Church of Christ, mentorship is no longer an abstract concept. It’s a living, breathing network of adults and youth engaging in guided relationships that extend beyond scripture into life planning, confidence building, and literacy revival. The effort, part of the church’s broader Education and Upliftment arm, is subtly yet steadily reconstructing what it means to nurture a generation.
Replacing the Lecture with the Listen
The framework is deceptively simple: select mentors not only based on tenure in the church, but on their spiritual maturity, career experience, and willingness to be interrupted. Each mentor is paired with a youth—some as young as 12—whose needs vary from academic reinforcement to emotional anchoring.
David Tennant, one of the programme leads, puts it succinctly: “Preaching isn’t enough anymore. What they need isn’t more noise from the pulpit—it’s presence.”
Mentors undergo practical training, but the true curriculum is empathy. One mentor, a veteran mother named Althea Smith, brings a literacy-first focus, working with children who’ve quietly slipped through the cracks of the school system. “They don’t need more adults barking at them. They need someone who sees them,” she says.
It’s Not Charity—It’s Capacity Building
While the format resembles charity, its impact is systemic. There’s no pitiful handholding—just deliberate exposure to better environments, consistent emotional reinforcement, and career-minded encouragement.
Tammi Brown, Smith’s daughter and a co-mentor, draws attention to the ripple effect. “You don’t change a society by shouting at it. You change it by quietly building a new one inside the old,” she states. “And if one church can do that—what’s stopping the rest?”
From Grandmothers to Project Managers
The diversity of mentors is key. Some are parents. Some are professionals. Others, like project manager Soroya Blake, bring a history of personal struggle. Her style is less doctrinal, more human. “I’m your friend—but I’m not just your friend,” she explains. “They need a version of their future in front of them, talking to them—not at them.”
Her mentee, a recent high school graduate now studying cosmetology, stands as a quiet rebuttal to the narrative of Jamaica’s ‘lost youth.’
Reimagining the Village
The initiative doesn’t evangelize aggressively. It doesn’t promise overnight change. But what it does is offer consistency, an often-foreign concept in the lives of vulnerable youth. Eleven-year-old Shaneilia Wedderburn, mentored by Smith, says she’s learning to navigate both her Bible and her dreams of military service—with confidence and clarity.
In the background, parents once hesitant are now showing up to church. Some who handed over their children now stay for the service. Transformation, it seems, is contagious.
And in the quiet space between Sunday worship and weekday chaos, this church is proving that mentorship isn’t just about giving back. It’s about building forward.
