How to Establish a Mentoring Program
Mentoring children and young adults has several benefits for both them and the ones who do the mentoring. For the young people, mentoring boosts their confidence and shows them that people are willing to instill important values in their lives that will make their futures brighter. For mentors, it offers the opportunity to use their expertise, life experiences and compassion to influence their communities for the better. There are various types of mentoring programs, so consider what your focus will be.
Instructions
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Find out the needs of your community. If you're interested in mentoring young engaged couples in order to help them build lasting marriages, visit your public library and read local news articles that pertain to recent marriage and divorce statistics and the marriage and divorce trends that drive those statistics. Also meet with local pastors, psychologists, social workers and community group directors to get suggestions on how to design this type of mentoring program based on the research you found.
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Develop a plan for your program. If you're starting a mentoring program that will help teenage fathers build financially stable and rewarding careers, meet with local high schools and universities and speak with the administrators about establishing a partnership with them to mentor any teenage fathers who attend their institutions. Or if your goal is to have a mentoring program where you invite speakers to talk with aspiring entrepreneurs twice a month, write letters to local businesses and ask if they would be interested in speaking with your group.
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Promote your new program. Create flyers that state details about the mentoring program, your contact information, and the location where meetings will be held as well as the times for those meetings. Also make appearances on local radio or TV programs that deal primarily with public affairs. Talk about why this program is needed in the community and mention ways that the public can volunteer or donate to the program.
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References
- Photo Credit people image by Einar Bog from Fotolia.com
