Kristina Moorhead is Vice President of the
Trusted Mentors Board and also a mentor. She shared this message at the Trusted
Mentors Gala.
Some of us are fortunate to have the resources like
a stable family and good education from birth, and others struggle to along
life’s path trying to understand and attain what so many of us take for
granted. The good news for those who may have struggled along the way is that
it’s never too late to choose a different path and make a different choice.
I chose to become a volunteer mentor with Trusted
Mentors because I believe that the one-to-one relationship with an adult
leaving prison, transitioning from homelessness or aging out of the foster care
system is a small, but powerful, way to change the world.
I was paired with my mentee, Marquisha, who recently
left the Craine House work release program after being incarcerated. While
incarcerated, she made the decision that she was done with how she had been
living her life and was ready to make a change. She started by completing her
GED in prison and continued to take CNA classes while she was living at Craine
House and working full time. She now works in a nursing home and is continuing
her studies to become a registered nurse.
She has done all of this while working to
re-establish relationships with her children and using herself as a role model
to guide them to make better choices.
In our mentor-mentee relationship, we have worked
together to think through a one year, five year and 10-year plan to reach her
goals, we’ve talked about needing a solid tribe of girl friends who are on the
same life path as you to both lift you up and hold you accountable, and we’ve
talked about how to manage grief when someone you love passes away.
While I’m the mentor
in this relationship, Marquisha constantly inspires me with her motivation and
grit to change her life, change her children’s lives and be a positive force of
energy in her community. 
