Winning Futures – Inspiring and preparing youth to succeed through mentoring.

Posts Tagged ‘recruiting mentors’

During January 2011 we celebrate the everyday, ordinary people who are making a difference for kids…Mentors!

Winning Futures is celebrating National Mentoring Month by asking all mentees and teachers to nominate mentors for the “Mentor of the Year Award”.  The nomination letters are then presented on January 25th as a gift to the mentors.

Here are 10 things to do in January to help celebrate NATIONAL MENTORING MONTH:

1. Become a mentor in your community.
2. Learn more about mentoring.
3. Partner with a mentoring organization.
4. Tell 5 friends about National Mentoring Month.
5. Think about the mentors in your life and post a tribute to them online.
6. Read the latest research and find resources on mentoring.
7. Serve your community on MLK Day of Service by deciding to become a mentor.
8. Make a donation to a mentoring organization in your community.
9. Go to YouTube on Thank Your Mentor Day™ (January 25) and make the National Mentoring Month videos the most popular of the day.
10. Explore ways to help children succeed academically through mentoring.

To learn more about National Mentoring Month, Mentor Michigan is offering a 2011 Michigan Mentoring Month Tool Kit. The tool kit contains resources and ideas to help local mentoring programs promote their activities, thank their mentors, and recruit new mentors.  You can also visit the National Mentoring Parnership website for more ideas.

Recruiting male mentors is one of the biggest challenges programs report. The majority of mentors have always been female while the majority of youth in need of a mentor have been male. Programs have learned that traditional recruitment techniques do not seem to motivate the male audience to become mentors. In order for children to have stable mentors in their lives the methods for recruiting men must change. Mentor Michigan has developed free resources for programs to use!

Visit www.Mentormichigan.org to download all of the Men and Mentoring tools and presentations.

Because of the Mentor Michigan tools and the structured mentoring activities we provide, 52% of Winning Futures’ mentors are men! www.WinningFutures.org

In our Winning Futures mentoring program, all of our mentees complete a profile sheet that we use to match them with mentors and to provide to the mentor so they get to know the student better.  This focuses more on their interests versus a case file.  It has the fun things mentors and mentees can use to build a relationship.

We now have the mentors completing a profile sheet with their photo on it to give to the mentees before the match begins.  This has really helped our mentees become even more excited and feel more relaxed when they meet their mentors.

For our schools, we then create a binder of all of the mentor profile sheets for the main office, security, and the teachers we work with.  It is a great way to promote the wonderful people who volunteer in the school, but also is helpful for security purposes.  We also share this with our board of directors.

Visit our website to download a blank Mentor Profile Sheet to use in your program, along with sample of a completed one.  http://www.winningfuturesbooks.org/private/index.php

Teachers, mentors, youth serving professionals…do you wish your students would participate more in class? Here is a suggestion that has worked in Winning Futures for 16 years!

In every Winning Futures meeting/class, we start with our “Good News” activity. We lay the ground work at the beginning of the year by stating that we know standing up in front of a group can be scary, awkward, and unnerving. That is why our “Number One” rule is “Respect for all Speakers” no matter if it is an adult or student. If someone is speaking, everyone in the room is to stay quiet with no side talking, snickering, or comments.

We ask anyone with something positive to share to please stand, say their first and last name, and tell us their good news. We allot up to 3 minutes for people to share. If you have mentors or adult volunteers, ask them to also share to help get things going each time.

We then close each class with a “Stand and Share” where mentees again stand, say their first and last name, and one thing they learned or liked about the class. We coach the students to be Loud and Proud by speaking up and making sure everyone can hear them.

I will let you that at the beginning of the year, it is sometimes like pulling teeth to have students volunteer. Through role modeling and encouraging students we know have good news to share, soon we have too many people wanting to speak!

Many teachers we work with have begun incorporating this into their daily classes and they have seen a tremendous difference in their participation as a whole in class and the respect level between the students.

Here is a great article on MSN written by Dewey Sadka, Career Expert. This could be a great activity to do with students and mentees. It has them select the color they like the least and then analyzes how they should select and prepare for a career!

This article is based on www.deweycolorsystem.com

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2412

Paul, service manager at Hamilton Chevrolet, shows mentees a piece of equipment he uses.

When mentors and mentees first meet, things can be awkward.  To help with that, have the mentors bring in a prop that represents their job.

Mentors need to be prepared in advance (tell them at training) to give a two minute talk about their job/career field.  They need to bring in props (photos, equipment, etc) that can be easily carried to help show the students what they do at work.

If you run a mentoring program where you have multiple mentors in one room, it is beneficial to let all of the mentees meet each mentor.  This can be done in a fun, fast way!

At the top of the sessions, host a “Mentor Speed Meeting” event. All mentoring teams will have the opportunity to meet each mentor exclusively for two minutes. At the end of that time, a bell will sound and each mentor will rotate to another table to speak with the next group of students.

Download directions for this activity on our website http://www.winningfuturesbooks.org/private/index.php

Monica, an acupuncturist, shows her mentees how she helps people through her work.

Tami and her mentor Pam

In Winning Futures, we learned many things from our mentors.  During one of our sessions we worked on interviewing techniques and the importance of having our own personal 30-second elevator pitch.   Honestly, I felt nervous and a little uncomfortable talking about myself as we moved around the room practicing our pitch to all the mentors, and was relieved when the session ended.  Never thinking that I would actually have a chance to use my pitch, it was less than one week later that I applied it in a job interview and got the job! It is all because of Winning Futures.  I walked in, gave the interviewer my 30-second pitch about myself and got the job on the spot!  It was so amazing and I’m very happy about it!  I am so happy I was in this program, it helped me a lot.  After being on the job for only one week, my new boss pulled me aside and told me that I was doing such a great job and that it looked like I would have a future with the company!  Thank you again for teaching us how to be professional in the business world.

Tami is a mentee in our Winning Futures mentoring program.  In each of our mentoring classes, our mentors and mentees use our life skills and goal setting curriculum to build relationships and gain life-long skills. Download the handout for 30 Second Networking activity at http://www.winningfuturesbooks.org/private/index.php  

This week, our alternative high school students had the wonderful opportunity to meet Liz Murray and hear her inspiring story of growing up homeless in the Bronx.  At 17 while still homeless, Liz went back to high school, graduated by 19, and earned her degree from Harvard.  Lifetime made a movie about her life, “Homeless to Harvard“.  Liz released her book “Breaking Night” this month, which just made the New York Times Best Sellers List!  Her book can be purchased on online at Amazon.com - click here.

She made our students realize that they can take control of their lives by asking for help and choosing to graduate and going on to college.  Liz also had a dedicated mentor…her teacher Perry.

Liz is touring the USA with Blessings in a Backpack to promote the mission of the charity which is to feed children on the weekends by providing them with a backpack of food every Friday.  Please see their website to bring the program to your community.  www.blessingsinabackpack.org

Thank you Liz for inspiring all of us at Winning Futures!

Liz Murray and Winning Futures Mentee

Youth organizations – What type of programming and activities do you do with youth?

This month, we are hosted our annual Inspiring Hope breakfast to recruit mentors, one-time volunteers, board members, and donors.  We have board members and other community members be “Table Captains” to bring nine people with them who are not currently involved in Winning Futures.  The goal is to introduce the guests to who we are, what we do, and the impact we make.  This event is free for guests (we negotiate a plated breakfast for $10 each and solicit businesses to make $500 donations to cover the cost).

Doors open a 7:30am for networking.  The program is 8-9am SHARP!  We promise to get people out on time so they can get to work.  In that 60 minutes, we present:

• Brief history
• Overview of our programs (just one slide)
• Awards and outcomes
• Structure (staffing, board, budget)
• Business partners opportunities (financial, in-kind, and manpower)
• Overview of students
• Student panel (5 outgoing youth who have been impacted by mentoring)
• Overview of mentoring
• Mentor panel
• Overview of board
• Direct ask for help and money

During the last part, we ask guests to fill out an interest form and to give that (and a donation if they wish) to their table captain at that time.

After the event there is time to network and visit our board, sponsor, and mentor booths to ask more questions.

Our goal is not to raise a ton of money at the event (it is nice when some comes in).  Our focus is on recruiting mentors and board members.  To engage donors, you need to have your table captains target people specifically for that.

Email me at kris@winningfutures.org if you want more details! 

Mentee panel member