I trained 14 mentors over a 7 week period. We met at the school every Tuesday night between 6.00 and 9.00 pm. Having 5 men present for the first stage of a pilot program was also amazing, as I was used to having considerably more female than male mentors prior to this program. Once a program has been up and running for a while then I find the male mentors start joining.
Anyway, mentors gathered from 5.45 pm and I provided light snacks, fruit, tea and coffee and the chance to chat informally. The training began at 6.15 and went on until about 7.25 pm, at which time I took a 10 minute tea/coffee break. The lollies or sweets are quickly consumed by one and all!! The final session of the evening ended at 9.00 pm. Occasionally I went over the time by 5 minutes, always with the permission of the participants and this was because I liked to conclude the evening with a story that would inspire the participants to keep on keeping on and also to give credence to the training that night.
I guess that was one thing that surprised me when I visited many programs in the USA and Canada last year. People were reluctant to spend more than a few hours training their volunteers and I often came away feeling that so many of those mentors were not properly prepared for working alongside young people. Adults get into bad habits, often think 'corporate speak' is going to work with young people (quite the opposite in many cases), feel they know exactly how to go about the mentoring journey, when they have so little understanding about what makes young people tick and so on and so forth. I am probably a little biased about all this, though I think it needs to be remembered that I am sharing ideas about mentoring adolescents.
When I first researched mentor training about 9 years ago, I came to see that many of the more successful programs were offering more than 12 - 16 hours of training. Those that went over 20 hours seemed to imply that the connection between mentor and mentee happened quicker than those with less training, something probably more true when mentoring boys I would imagine - the latter is certainly my experience.
Anyway, from the outset I decided to take the longer route and hoped that mentors would be happy with that form of training and I have not been disappointed. I have tried training over one day, for a few hours, over a couple of days during weekends, yet each time I come back to this 21-hour training program which I continue to develop - one has to keep writing, developing etc., as now we are working with Generation Y young people and we are mentoring young people who will participate in a very different world of work from when I started off my career.
I have now trained over 700 mentors and yet I am still learning, hence the importance of gaining honest feedback from the participants, which I obtain verbally during the training and in writing at the end of the training. The latter is a straightforward qualitative and quantitative evaluation form which I then collate and pass on to the school and my CEO. All mentors receive a copy of 'The Spirit of Mentoring - a Manual for volunteer adults', which I wrote in 2005 and self-published. This is the resource book around which the training has been developed, though it is mainly for use by the mentors when they begin the mentoring journey. I wrote it is a user-friendly book containing heaps and heaps of tips, ideas and so much more, mostly written with bullet points and under clear headings, with diagrams throughout. Many of the diagrams are similar to the power point slides I use during the training. This book is available through my website at less than half the price my publishers recommended! I am grateful to all those who have shared their experiences, as well as for the many, many resources I consulted prior to writing the book, which also includes a lengthy Bibliography :-)
The topics I cover over the 7 weeks are:
Week 1: What is a mentor?
Week 2: Goal-getting.
Week 3: Resiliency.
Week 4: Self-image and assertive behaviour.
Week 5: Communication.
Week 6: Resolving Conflicts.
Week 7: Summary and Evaluation.
There is heaps of repetition, which is deliberate, allowing the participants to grasp how so many of these modules are interlinked. There are plenty of interactive activities and an opportunity for participants to get in touch with their own feelings and experiences as they decide whether or not they want to undertake the mentoring journey. I make the first week challenging, as I would rather mentors drop out at that point than later, or even once they have started the mentoring journey. Occasionally I have lost a participant early on, but that's been fine.
I try to include a self-analysis sheet of some sort at the end of every evening, so the participants can assess how they stack up as potential mentors. All activities and self-analysis sheets are non-threatening, the activities often loaded with humour and fun. I begin each week with an icebreaker of some sort, though absolutely every aspect of the training is linked to mentoring young people in some way. I go at a fairly rapid pace, which is what the majority of participants truly enjoy. By the time I complete the training, mentors are familiar with the importance of EMPATHY and COMMUNICATION, especially LISTENING and NOT fixing or saving and so much more.
I feel so privileged to train mentors and the vibe is always so positive. I work hard at this on the first night and I am always pleasantly surprised at how many people share 'stuff' so early in the training. You will see from the order of the modules above that I bring the more sensitive material around resiliency, self-image and resolving conflict into the latter part of the training. The major emphasis of the training is the experiential nature of it. I also include role plays (not enough!), pairs and larger group discussion and, of course, we often have large group discussion as I share the meat of the topics.
What made this recent training that little bit more special was the fact that our catering was done by another federally funded project which helps young people, aged 13 - 19, and who have been away from school for at least three months, to get some experience in the hospitality sector. It's a fantastic programme and again I feel privileged to serve on their Steering Committee now. Cafe Horizons, as it is known, operates as a genuine Cafe between 11.30 am and 2.30 pm 4 days a week, during which time the students, who are supervised by professionally qualified and trained staff, take on different roles eg, a week as a kitchen hand, a week as front of house, a week as cashier etc. etc. Prior to the Cafe opening and again after cleaning up towards the end of the day, the students attend lectures in a room set aside for this purpose. I have been pleased to hear that some of the mentors have been there for lunch to see the cafe in action for themselves. Those students who complete the course gain a recognised Certificate for their efforts.
Anyway, mentors gathered from 5.45 pm and I provided light snacks, fruit, tea and coffee and the chance to chat informally. The training began at 6.15 and went on until about 7.25 pm, at which time I took a 10 minute tea/coffee break. The lollies or sweets are quickly consumed by one and all!! The final session of the evening ended at 9.00 pm. Occasionally I went over the time by 5 minutes, always with the permission of the participants and this was because I liked to conclude the evening with a story that would inspire the participants to keep on keeping on and also to give credence to the training that night.
I guess that was one thing that surprised me when I visited many programs in the USA and Canada last year. People were reluctant to spend more than a few hours training their volunteers and I often came away feeling that so many of those mentors were not properly prepared for working alongside young people. Adults get into bad habits, often think 'corporate speak' is going to work with young people (quite the opposite in many cases), feel they know exactly how to go about the mentoring journey, when they have so little understanding about what makes young people tick and so on and so forth. I am probably a little biased about all this, though I think it needs to be remembered that I am sharing ideas about mentoring adolescents.
When I first researched mentor training about 9 years ago, I came to see that many of the more successful programs were offering more than 12 - 16 hours of training. Those that went over 20 hours seemed to imply that the connection between mentor and mentee happened quicker than those with less training, something probably more true when mentoring boys I would imagine - the latter is certainly my experience.
Anyway, from the outset I decided to take the longer route and hoped that mentors would be happy with that form of training and I have not been disappointed. I have tried training over one day, for a few hours, over a couple of days during weekends, yet each time I come back to this 21-hour training program which I continue to develop - one has to keep writing, developing etc., as now we are working with Generation Y young people and we are mentoring young people who will participate in a very different world of work from when I started off my career.
I have now trained over 700 mentors and yet I am still learning, hence the importance of gaining honest feedback from the participants, which I obtain verbally during the training and in writing at the end of the training. The latter is a straightforward qualitative and quantitative evaluation form which I then collate and pass on to the school and my CEO. All mentors receive a copy of 'The Spirit of Mentoring - a Manual for volunteer adults', which I wrote in 2005 and self-published. This is the resource book around which the training has been developed, though it is mainly for use by the mentors when they begin the mentoring journey. I wrote it is a user-friendly book containing heaps and heaps of tips, ideas and so much more, mostly written with bullet points and under clear headings, with diagrams throughout. Many of the diagrams are similar to the power point slides I use during the training. This book is available through my website at less than half the price my publishers recommended! I am grateful to all those who have shared their experiences, as well as for the many, many resources I consulted prior to writing the book, which also includes a lengthy Bibliography :-)
The topics I cover over the 7 weeks are:
Week 1: What is a mentor?
Week 2: Goal-getting.
Week 3: Resiliency.
Week 4: Self-image and assertive behaviour.
Week 5: Communication.
Week 6: Resolving Conflicts.
Week 7: Summary and Evaluation.
There is heaps of repetition, which is deliberate, allowing the participants to grasp how so many of these modules are interlinked. There are plenty of interactive activities and an opportunity for participants to get in touch with their own feelings and experiences as they decide whether or not they want to undertake the mentoring journey. I make the first week challenging, as I would rather mentors drop out at that point than later, or even once they have started the mentoring journey. Occasionally I have lost a participant early on, but that's been fine.
I try to include a self-analysis sheet of some sort at the end of every evening, so the participants can assess how they stack up as potential mentors. All activities and self-analysis sheets are non-threatening, the activities often loaded with humour and fun. I begin each week with an icebreaker of some sort, though absolutely every aspect of the training is linked to mentoring young people in some way. I go at a fairly rapid pace, which is what the majority of participants truly enjoy. By the time I complete the training, mentors are familiar with the importance of EMPATHY and COMMUNICATION, especially LISTENING and NOT fixing or saving and so much more.
I feel so privileged to train mentors and the vibe is always so positive. I work hard at this on the first night and I am always pleasantly surprised at how many people share 'stuff' so early in the training. You will see from the order of the modules above that I bring the more sensitive material around resiliency, self-image and resolving conflict into the latter part of the training. The major emphasis of the training is the experiential nature of it. I also include role plays (not enough!), pairs and larger group discussion and, of course, we often have large group discussion as I share the meat of the topics.
What made this recent training that little bit more special was the fact that our catering was done by another federally funded project which helps young people, aged 13 - 19, and who have been away from school for at least three months, to get some experience in the hospitality sector. It's a fantastic programme and again I feel privileged to serve on their Steering Committee now. Cafe Horizons, as it is known, operates as a genuine Cafe between 11.30 am and 2.30 pm 4 days a week, during which time the students, who are supervised by professionally qualified and trained staff, take on different roles eg, a week as a kitchen hand, a week as front of house, a week as cashier etc. etc. Prior to the Cafe opening and again after cleaning up towards the end of the day, the students attend lectures in a room set aside for this purpose. I have been pleased to hear that some of the mentors have been there for lunch to see the cafe in action for themselves. Those students who complete the course gain a recognised Certificate for their efforts.
By the way, mentors who complete their training receive a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the training. Over the years I have discovered a few (very few, fortunately) who wanted to gain a Certificate, which they then put on their Resume (or Curriculum Vitae) and claimed they were mentors which they were not. Our mentors only gain an accredited Certificate once the six week probationary mentoring period is over.
I am digressing ..... perhaps a good place to end for a moment.
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