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. Teenagers and young adults are at high risk ..read more

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. Why preparing for match closure is important Som ..read more

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 ex ..read more

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 ..read more

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. T ..read more

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 t ..read more

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 ev ..read more

A Guide to Finding Evidence-Based 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 eas ..read more

A Guide to Finding Funding and Grants for Mentoring Programs So, you have big plans for your youth mentoring program, and you’re ready to develop, expand, and hit the ground running, but you don’t have the funding or resources you need to launch a new mentoring program or take your current mentoring program to the next level? There are numerous organizations and foundations that provide funding and grants for mentoring programs to apply for, so you can provide evidence-based training to your mentors, offer high quality resources and activities to matches, employ a team of professional mentorin ..read more

One of the most challenging parts of being a mentor to a child or teenager is jointly planning activities to do together. Breaking the adult-child decision-making paradigm of adults making all of the decisions is critical to establishing an effective mentoring relationship. One area to regularly practice sharing power with a mentee is in making decisions together about how to spend mentoring meetings. Mentors should ask mentees which mentoring activities are the most engaging, feasible, and beneficial for them. Mentors often approach mentoring program staff with many questions and concerns ab ..read more