Posted by eporter on October 31, 2024
Mentoring Central Research Scientist Presents at the 2024 Whitney M. Young, Jr., Leadership Development Conference
Mentoring Central Research Scientist Dr. Rebecca Stelter co-led a session at the 2024 Whitney M. Young, Jr., Leadership Development Conference in New York, NY this month to discuss data-informed strategies for recruiting, training, and retaining volunteer mentors within the National Urban League’s signature Project Ready: Mentor program.
The Whitney M. Young, Jr., Leadership Development Conference is an annual meeting hosted by the National Urban League that brings leaders of the Urban League affiliate movement together to build connections and share or learn strategies to advance the movement. Mentoring Central researchers have presented at the annual Whitney M. Young, Jr. conference for over 10 years to share helpful insights for affiliates of the National Urban League’s Project Ready: Mentor program.
At the 2024 meeting of the conference, Dr. Stelter co-led a session with Brian Sales, principal owner of Transformative Training and Technical Assistance, LLC. The session was entitled Boosting Volunteer Mentor Recruitment, Training, and Retention with Data-Driven Insights. Mr. Sales discussed the value of training and technical assistance for mentoring programs and how Project Ready: Mentor is currently receiving training and technical assistance from Mr. Sales and Dr. Stelter, such as through affiliate staff coaching, in-person group training, virtual webinars, and monthly meetings with technical assistance providers.
Dr. Stelter shared findings from surveys that were completed by Project Ready: Mentor affiliate staff. For example, the surveys indicated that affiliate staff are struggling to recruit and retain mentors and staff, obtain funding to serve more youth, and help matches find time to meet face-to-face. However, staff indicated that they feel they have developed strong connections to the community and have committed mentors and engaged mentees. She also shared data from four years of volunteer mentors’ applications to Project Ready: Mentor affiliate programs, including volunteer demographics and volunteers’ reasons for wanting to mentor. Lastly, Dr. Stelter shared insights about Project Ready: Mentor’s mentors’ completion of their required pre-match training developed by Mentoring Central, including whether they completed training after starting or began their training at all.
Session participants had the opportunity to participate in discussions and activities to explore how they could use these insights to improve their programs’ practices to recruit, train, retain, and engage more mentors.
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