Posted on April 23, 2024 by eporter
How Mentoring Programs Can Promote Safe Driving Among Young People
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which is an important time to spread awareness of the dangers of distracted driving and strategies to prevent it. Distracted driving can significantly increase the chance of vehicle crashes as well as death or injury for drivers and passengers. Distractions can come in various forms for drivers, including using a mobile device, eating or drinking, talking to passengers, or fidgeting with a navigation device or radio while driving.
Posted on April 22, 2024 by eporter
Tips for Promoting Healthy Mentoring Relationship Closure
For some mentoring programs, particularly school-based mentoring programs, the lifecycle of the mentoring relationship follows the schedule of the academic year. This means that many mentoring relationships will soon come to a close, or matches must redefine their relationship. As summer approaches and the school year comes to an end for many students, mentoring program staff and mentors should begin preparing to close or redefine their mentoring relationships in a healthy, impactful way.
Posted on April 19, 2024 by eporter
The Importance of Training Mentors to Build Critical Consciousness and Cultural Humility
Abbey N. Collins, B.A
Cultural competency training of mentors and mentoring program staff members has many direct and indirect benefits to mentors, mentees, mentoring relationships, and mentoring programs, as we described in a previous article. The central goal of cultural competency training for mentors is to increase mentors’ knowledge about the culture they come from as well as the culture and customs of other individuals. Cultural competency training can help mentors improve mentees’ ethnic identity exploration, positive views of their identity, sense of belonging, academic success, retention in various fields such as STEM, self-efficacy, and developmental outcomes. Cultural competency is an important starting point for mentors to understand their cultural biases and develop greater cultural awareness; however, emerging research suggests that it is necessary for mentors to also learn about the systemic factors that affect the lives of their mentees.1,2
Posted on March 22, 2024 by eporter
Customize Mentoring Trainings to Reflect Your Program
When offering training to mentors, mentees, and parents/caregivers of mentees involved your mentoring program, you likely want to be sure that the trainings you offer not only provide essential information participants need for a successful mentoring relationship but also reflect your program’s specific mission, policies, practices, and branding. Mentoring Central offers options to customize any of our mentoring training courses, so you can elevate your program participants’ training experiences and achieve your program’s goals.
Posted on February 27, 2024 by eporter
Why Cultural Competency Training Should Be Offered to Mentors and Mentoring Program Staff
Abbey N. Collins, B.A
In the United States, the number of youth involved in mentoring programs has grown considerably over the past century since the establishment of the first organized mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.1,2 In particular, mentoring programs are popular interventions for a great number of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth.3,4 In fact, it is estimated that approximately 76% of the mentees served in the U.S. are BIPOC children and adolescents; however, the majority (53%) of the mentors who serve these populations are non-Hispanic White individuals.3,5 This discrepancy in race and background often creates a “sociocultural gap” in which there is a disconnect between the experiences of the mentors and their mentees, which might have deleterious impacts, not only on the mentoring relationship but also on the mentee.6,7 To address this gap, youth mentoring programs have begun implementing cultural competency training for mentors to help mentors better understand the background and experiences their mentees bring to the mentoring relationship.
Posted on February 16, 2024 by eporter
Why Your Mentoring Program Should Provide Training to Parents/Caregivers of Mentees
A common misconception about mentoring is that an impactful mentoring experience for a child consists solely of a supportive relationship between a mentor and a mentee. In truth, the model of successful mentoring is complex and consists of various interdependent relationships between the mentor, mentoring program staff, and parents or caregivers of the mentee, all working together to contribute to positive, impactful experiences for the mentee.1
Posted on January 19, 2024 by eporter
Tips for Recruiting Committed Mentors to Your Program
Many mentoring programs have difficulty recruiting mentors to volunteer in their program and begin a mentoring relationship with a mentee. Program staff often report challenges to 1) recruiting a sufficient number of mentors to match the number of mentees enrolled in their program, 2) recruiting mentors who have similar interests to mentees, 3) recruiting mentors whose skills and motivations match the program’s goals, and 4) recruiting mentors who are committed to the mentoring relationship who will not leave the relationship prematurely. To address these recruitment challenges, we have outlined some tips to consider while recruiting mentors to volunteer in your mentoring program, so you can locate and enroll committed, trusting mentors to meet the unique needs of each of your mentees.
Posted on December 20, 2023 by eporter
Supporting Mentees During the Holidays: A Guide for Mentors and Mentoring Program Staff
The holiday season can be an exciting and joyful time to gather with loved ones and plan celebrations, but it can also be a stressful time for both children and adults. During this time of year, families may face stress caused by changes in normal routines and schedules, financial burdens, pressure to socialize, or grief that is exacerbated during the holidays. Short-term stress, such as that often experienced during the holidays, can be beneficial to youth when they are in a supportive environment with a trusted adult. Experiencing stress in this way may promote resilience and help youth create mechanisms for dealing with stressful situations in the future. However, when stress is severe and/or long lasting, it may increase a child’s risk of cognitive impairment and lead to disease development into adulthood. Fortunately, research shows that support from a caring adult may prevent or reverse these harmful effects of stress on the health and wellbeing of young people.
Posted on November 30, 2023 by eporter
How Your Mentoring Program Could Benefit from Mentoring Central’s Annual Membership Plan
Every mentoring program has important training and evaluation needs related to preparing their matches for the mentoring relationship and improving their program’s practices; however, the process of searching for resources or tools to address all of your program’s needs can be challenging and time consuming. Many mentoring programs want to provide staff, mentors, and parents involved in their program with online training and have asked for opportunities to receive easy access to an array of training and evaluation resources. Mentoring Central responded to this need by creating a simple, affordable Annual Membership plan that combines all of its mentoring products into one comprehensive bundle. Mentoring programs can choose which bundle best fits the size of their program.
Posted on November 28, 2023 by eporter
A Guide to Finding Evidence-Based and Research-Informed Training Programs for Mentoring
Implementing high quality training is an integral step in the process of building and maintaining a successful mentoring program. Research has shown that mentor training programs that prepare mentors to establish a meaningful connection with their mentee may directly impact mentee outcomes, volunteer retention, and mentors’ feelings of satisfaction and self-efficacy as a mentor. Training mentees about what a mentoring relationship is, what they can expect from their match meetings, and how they can benefit from mentoring may ease their anxiety and uncertainty about entering a relationship with a mentor, and therefore yield more positive outcomes for the mentee. In addition, training programs for mentoring program staff and parents of mentees may better prepare parents and staff to support the match and set them up for a successful mentoring relationship.