Posted by jmeyer on October 25, 2022
Mentoring comes with rules, boundaries, and policies to ensure the safety of the mentee and mentor. Discover some key areas where mentoring programs need to create and implement policies and practices to reduce risk.
Imagine a hot summer day that is perfect for a swim. Mentors may want to take their mentees to the local pool, but is this an appropriate situation for a match? This is just one example of everyday circumstances where programs and mentors need guidance. Programs must have mentoring guidelines that respect mentees, boundaries, and their cultures. There can be a vast number of challenges when it comes to this. Deciphering what is “okay” and what is not must be clearly defined for everyone involved, as a mentoring relationship cannot be considered high-quality unless it is safe.
The goal of mentoring programs is to provide a safe relationship with an adult for vulnerable young children. While the most rewarding part of mentoring can be seeing mentors grow and develop, that cannot happen without operational mentoring guidelines and ethics training. A program cannot be successful or operate without policies and procedures to keep mentees safe and secure.
Across the life of a mentoring relationship, from the point a person thinks about becoming a mentor, to the point the match relationship ends, there are practices programs should engage in to protect mentees.
For programs to be efficacious and safe, the appropriate people need to be in the correct positions from the start. While every part of a program must focus on safety, recruiting and screening staff and mentors is a good first step. MENTOR’s Elements of Effective Practice (EEPM) outlines steps programs should take when recruiting and training volunteers and staff. For example, screening potential mentors should include background checks, a deduction of their time commitment, reference checks, face-to-face meetings, and other appropriate screening measures. EEPM also suggests mentors, mentees, staff, and parents/guardians should undergo a minimum of two hours of training. This can and should involve ethics training as well.
When a program has mentoring guidelines and ethics training for the entire organization, including mentors, mentees, parents/guardians, and other staff, the entire team can ensure children are in a safe environment.
Safe and ethical youth mentoring programs will need to implement a host of policies, procedures, and training to ensure everyone’s safety. Many of these points can be broken down into three categories, training, policies and procedures, and communication. Though, this is not a complete list of what makes programs safe.
First, all staff, volunteers, mentors, mentees, and parents/guardians should be educated about safety and ethics. Without ethics training to gain the knowledge of rules and laws guiding youth mentoring programs, participants cannot be expected to follow them.
Next, programs should develop policies and procedures (more on this detailed below). For example, every state has different laws when it comes to working with youth suspected of being abused or neglected. These laws are in effect for both children’s and the program’s safety. Of course, following the laws in the state(s) where your program functions is one of the most basic mentoring guidelines.
Finally, communication throughout the entire organization should be effective, including internal and external communication. This means communication between mentors and the program, mentors to mentees, parents/guardians to the program, and staff to the program are all done, and done efficaciously. All policies, laws, procedures, and training requirements should be communicated to the entire program.
Mentoring programs should have a standard set of operating procedures, with a specific focus on safety. A rule of thumb to follow is, “Have a policy for it, even if you think you don’t need it.” Some incidents and occurrences are rare, but it is crucial to have a policy for every instance, so everyone knows how to act. Programs must anticipate what could go wrong. Mentoring Central provides programs with guidance on creating their own policies and procedures that fit every program’s specific needs and situation.
Any policy would not be complete without consequences for not following that rule. This helps programs implement and execute safety procedures that all staff and volunteers comply with.
In order for the policies, procedures, and consequences to be adhered to correctly, a training program for mentors is essential. Mentoring Central has a free ethics training program that you can use to guide policies and procedures.
This is an incomplete list of examples of circumstances organizations should have policies about:
Mentoring Central uses decades of research to develop training programs for successful mentoring programs. In our interactive, online ethics training program titled Ethics & Safety, users will be taught applicable ethical principles informed from the pages of First Do No Harm: Ethical Principles for Youth Mentoring Relationships paper by Drs. Jean Rhodes, Belle Liang, and Renee Spencer.
Our courses are also guided by the standards laid out in the EEPM, providing programs with the mentoring resources they need to ensure safe and ethical mentoring programs. Our ethics and safety course is just one of a suite of evidence-based preparing for mentoring training Mentoring Central offers.
Enroll in Ethics & Safety to provide a safeguard for mentors and mentees alike within your organization.