Announcement for 01/31/12
The Critical Components of Mentor Program Development
By Christi Hurt, Consultant, and Saudia Abdullah, Council of State Governments Justice Center
Mentoring programs vary widely, depending on the organizations that house them, the communities that support them, and the history of the programs themselves. All mentoring programs, however, grapple with similar issues: developing and maintaining a successful mentor base, sustaining the program for the long term, and effecting positive change in clients’ lives.
Building a mentor program can be broken down into four key steps.
- Mentor recruitment,
- Mentor selection and training,
- Mentor matching, and
- Mentor support/retention .
Mentor recruitment
Before beginning to engage community members as mentors in a re-entry program, the program must clearly articulate its own goals and how it defines success. When programs are clear about their mission and goals, it is more likely that community members and groups will be interested in volunteering their own time for this work. Community members want to know the potential impact of their participation. When a program can clearly articulate its overall goals and how mentors can contribute to realizing these goals, the program can more successfully recruit and maintain a base of volunteer mentors.
Once it has defined its overall goals and how mentors fit into these goals, the program should then clearly define the qualities it seeks in a mentor. Developing and providing up-to-date job descriptions for potential mentors helps to ensure that the program finds mentors who both match their needs and who are aware of the responsibilities and expectations they will have to meet in this role.
Many programs have experienced some degree of difficulty finding individuals eager to volunteer for the program. It can be difficult to recruit volunteers in any role, and finding volunteers who are interested in supporting an offender re-entry program can be especially tricky. Programs can increase their likelihood of success by building partnerships with civic organizations, faith communities, and local businesses. Building long-term relationships with these groups can help educate community members regarding the role of re-entry programs in their community. By forming a positive relationship with a leader of the organization, he or she can serve as a quasi-recruiter on behalf of the reentry program.
Mentor selection and training
Once mentors are recruited, they need to be screened and interviewed to ensure that they are a good fit for the program (the NRRC has tools available to help programs develop their own mentor screening processes). The program should be selective, only admitting those mentors who meet the criteria set forth before recruitment began. After these individuals are screened, the program must orient and train these potential mentors in order to ensure that they have the skills and information to do their work well. Trainings and orientations vary program by program (samples of curricula used by Second Chance Act-funded mentor programs are available through the NRRC). These trainings should help familiarize the mentors to their new roles, how to maintain appropriate boundaries with the mentees, the program’s policies and requirements, and the program’s expectations regarding their engagement with mentees as well as program staff.
Mentor matching
While there are no hard and fast rules about mentor matching, program staff should consider some key considerations when matching mentors to participants. For example, programs should consider the mentor’s geographical proximity to the participant, their common interests, the mentee’s needs, and whether their personalities are a match. Programs should also consider gender and cultural issues, and take into account both parties’ preferences regarding the match.
By clearly defining the objectives for the mentoring program at the outset – in particular, why you are creating the mentoring program and what you expect to achieve – programs will find they have a more appropriate pool of mentors and therefore are better positioned to match the right mentors to participants.
Mentor support/retention
In light of the time, energy, and expense dedicated to recruiting and training mentors, reentry programs are making a significant investment in their volunteers. Mentors should feel adequately supported and programs should make every effort possible to retain them for the duration of their commitment. Mentors should be thanked and appreciated for their work and should always be respected by program staff. Mentor appreciation parties, individual mentor-supervisor meetings, and other types of mentor recognition events can do a great deal to show mentors how valuable they are to the success of the re-entry program. As much as possible, program staff should tailor the type of support provided to meet the individual needs of each mentor.
At the same time, program staff should hold mentors accountable for their commitments. Though generally volunteers, mentors have a very real responsibility to their mentees as well as to the program – and in a sense can be considered to hold jobs within the organization. Staff who supervise mentees should carefully outline their expectations for each mentor. They should check in on how the mentor is doing, help address any challenges he or she faces, and commend him or her for successes accomplished along the way. If, however, mentees do not follow-through with their commitments or don’t meet the program’s expectations, supervising staff should address the reasons for any shortfalls with the mentor quickly, frankly and clearly – just as they would for any staff. If a problem goes unaddressed, staff should take disciplinary action – up to and including terminating the relationship with the volunteer mentor.
Throughout the life of the program, staff must consistently evaluate the program’s success (starting by agreeing on a definition of success), work towards building sustainable programming and funding, and plan for the future. All of these efforts require developing ongoing partnerships with community members and partners to ensure that the mentoring program meets the needs of its community and adapts as those needs change.
The National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) is available to provide technical assistance and support as you implement each of these steps in designing your program. For more information about the critical components of mentoring individuals returning from prison to the community, contact Saudia Abdulla or Crystal Garland Crystal Garland.