To Be A Mentor
What is a Mentor?
Webster defines a “Mentor” as “A Wise and Trusted Counselor or Teacher.”
Mentoring is a concept based upon the establishment of an influential relationship between two people. Traditionally this relationship involves a younger person, an older teen, younger adult, older adult, or a person who share a common interest with a younger person. Mentoring can provide an inexpensive and effective method of helping at-risk and troubled youths within the community. In addition, mentoring can directly address the lack of parental supervision needed in a child life. Mentoring is an experience that will forever change the adult, the child, and the community as a whole.
To be an effective Mentor requires total commitment, hard work, devotion and dedication to both the program and the youths. A background check must be conducted on all potential mentor candidates. And Mentors must be law-abiding citizens in good standing with the community.
Each potential mentor should be over the age of 21, and able to complete and pass an thorough back ground verification with the FBI, after completing an application with a set of fingerprints. The volunteer must be willing to go through 8 hours of orientation training. Commit to meeting with the assigned youth for a minimum of 2 hours weekly and 8 hours monthly. All potential Mentors must produce a current photograph of themselves for our files and all mentors must provide proof of auto insurance.
Listed below are some of the expectations and responsibilities of mentors in our program:
1.
Be a positive role model.
Be a positive role model.2.Support and encourage a youths to accomplish his/her goals.
Support and encourage a youths to accomplish his/her goals.3. The volunteer must have thick skin, until the relationship become reciprocal.
4.Assist youths in his/her self-esteem.
Assist youths in his/her self-esteem.5.Assist youths to explore his/her career.
Assist youths to explore his/her career.6.Help youth to develop his/her community responsibilities.
Help youth to develop his/her community responsibilities.7.Be an effective listener and an honest friend to your youths.
Be an effective listener and an honest friend to your youths.8.Mentors should be willing to participate in cultural and educational activities with youths.
Mentors should be willing to participate in cultural and educational activities with youths.9.Encourage and support youths to stay in school.
Encourage and support youths to stay in school.10. Encourage and support youths to stay away from drugs, alcohol and gangs.
11. Encourage and support youths to stay away from negative and hostile environment.
12. Ability to respect youth’s boundaries.
13. Must abide by strict confidentiality of youth’s personal information.
14. Must focus on the youth and not the family.
15. Ability to be sympathetic with the youth’s situation and have an ear to listen.
16. Able to enter into the relationship without any pre-conceived ideas of how the youth should be.
Volunteering is easy. simply complete, sign and mail the Mentor application to us!
Innovative Community Action Network
Mentoring Program
P.O. Box 29578
Shreveport, LA. 71149
"Mentoring Leaves No Child Behind"
