Mentoring Journal – See What’s New!

We just received the third printing of our highly requested Mentoring Journals, so they’re back in stock! For this version, we’ve simplified the instructions page and included new illustrations to give hints about using pages, updated our 101 Simple Activities List, added a new activity about planning (or just thinking about) your future, and reduced the pocket pages to just one, creating a leaner Mentoring Journal.

For those who are new to the Mentoring Journal  this resource offers mentoring matches a structured yet flexible format to enjoy meaningful activities together, increasing the opportunity for meaningful interactions. Sold in sets of two so each mentor and mentee receive their own, by using the Mentoring Journals,  they get a reflective, creative and FUN experience; chances to contribute to each other’s Mentoring Journal; and the opportunity to turn memories of a year into memories for a lifetime.

Program staff can also benefit: when your mentors and mentees use Mentoring Journals, your program gets an instrument for monitoring meetings, a tool to assess relationship satisfaction, an opportunity to measure activity levels, and a method to align individual match goals with your overall program goals.

Good for both 12-month and school year matches, the Mentoring Journal is divided into four sections, with activities that increase in interaction and sharing as the match progresses through the year.

To celebrate this new version, we’re offering 10% off any orders until August 31, 2013. When ordering online, use the promo code NEW2013 to receive your discounted price.

For more information, see our webpage about the Mentoring Journals, view a recorded webinar or view the slides from the webinar illustrating the resource, or go to our storefront to order Mentoring Journals online. 

Welcome back to our summer intern James!

Hi, my name is James Fredericksen, and I am the senior summer intern for Friends for Youth. A little bit about me, I am getting ready to start my senior year of college at Willamette University in Salem Oregon as a history major, focusing on ancient and medieval Europe. I attended high school at Menlo Atherton (MA), and grew up in Menlo Park. As a child I played a wide variety of sports, although I have largely stopped since going to college.

I love reading, particularly at night where I can spend a (far too) great amount of time delving into a particular book. It is not uncommon for me to start reading at 11:00 or so and look up and find it to be 2-3 in the morning or even later. My favorite genre is sci-fi and fantasy and some of my favorite series include Redwall, The Dresden Files, the Belgariad, and Mortal Engines. Favorite individual books are The Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, and 1984.

My favorite television series are Firefly, Black Books, and Futurama, although I enjoy a great many more. Honestly I love anything by Joss Whedon who has yet to let me down. In terms of film, I most enjoy The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lives of Others, and Lawrence of Arabia.

Musically I am very scattered. I enjoy many genres and artists. I was more or less raised on Warren Zevon, John Prine, and Bruce Springsteen, all of which I still like to listen to today. I also listen to musicians such as The Cat Empire, Counting Crows, Dark Tranquility, Jonathan Coultan, Lyriel, and Flogging Molly. More than anything though, I am particularly annoyed when someone changes the song halfway through, which to me ruins the experience. I also have the habit when discovering new music to listen whatever I find into the ground, for example when I first heard Gary Jules’ version of Mad World, I listened to that over 300 times.

This will actually be my second time interning at Friend for Youth. When I was presented with the opportunity to work with such a friendly and dedicated staff again for the summer, it was not a hard choice for me to make. I must say I am excited to get another summer’s worth of experiences here at Friends for Youth.

I hope you enjoyed learning this little bit about me!

Friends for Youth's Annual BBQ

This past sunny Saturday Friends for Youth hosted its annual BBQ and picnic activity at Coyote Point. About 30 amazing mentors and mentees brought yummy and healthy side dishes to share from beautiful colorful salads to fancy finger sandwiches. Everyone got to enjoy the outdoors and have hot dogs fresh off the grill. Friendships got a chance to know each other better as they flew kites, jumped rope, played board games, and completed a not so easy Alphabet Scavenger Hunt. 

Tidemark Makes an Impact at Friends for Youth

Last week Friends for Youth teamed up with local start-up Tidemark to conduct a “waitlist activity” for our youth. 

There are about 50 youth waiting to be matched with a mentor at this time, and this was an opportunity for a group of them to enjoy an evening of bowling and pizza alongside a group of Tidemark employees. With the help of the fun and encouraging Tidemark employees some youth bowled for the very first time, and the activity was a great success.

Friends for Youth is grateful to Tidemark for sponsoring this opportunity for our youth!

Mentoring and Teaching - Both Appreciated This Week (and All Year!)

Happy National Teacher Appreciation Week! Friends For Youth would like to thank all our Senior Friends and for all mentors in both formal and informal programs for being both teachers and friends to their mentees. While our mentors enjoy hanging out with their mentees, they are also committed to being positive role models who help to provide guidance for these youth in our communities who are in need of more support. By the end of the year in our program, at least 88% of our mentees visited a college campus and talked about their future. This just goes to show that mentoring does, in fact, work.

Additionally, when mentors instill the belief in their mentees that learning can take place anytime and anywhere, they can be that teacher outside of the classroom who provides that extra bit of guidance once the school day is over. Simple things such as showing their mentees where they work, taking a trip to the museum, or going out to a ballgame are just a few of the many ways in which mentors can help to promote learning. Even baking cookies together includes lots of learning moments! So long as mentors and mentees are engaging in activities that allow for meaningful conversations to occur, there is no ceiling to the amount of learning which can take place. 

So, here’s to you, Senior Friends and mentors around the world! Thanks to each and every one of you for being there for your Junior Friends and mentees. Your kind hearts and willingness to impart the valuable life lessons you have learned with the youth in your community is truly appreciated!

Guest post written by our Communications and Social Media Intern, Josh Tiongson

Making the Most of Mentoring: The 14th Annual Mentoring Conference

Thank you to all those who participated in the 14th Annual Mentoring Conference! From the attendees to the presenters, the mentee panelists to the Oracle facilities staff, everyone came together to make this year's conference a dynamic, educational, nurturing event.

Special thanks goes to all keynote presenters, including Ulrich Schmid-Maybach and Nicole Tung. Mr. Ulrich Schmid-Maybach spoke about the Maybach Foundation's mentoring program, which matches up promising young people with experts in various professions. Nicole Tung, a Maybach Foundation Mentee, spoke from Turkey about her experiences there as a photojournalist.

Keynote presenters Michael Karcher and David DuBois presented on their book, the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring. Detained in Chicago because of a storm, DuBois joined via internet.

"We are so honored to be among such esteemed mentoring professionals here today," Friends for Youth Executive Director Becky Cooper said in her opening remarks. "It is all of you that give us hope for our children's futures."

Mentor Tip

Today is Earth Day.  Read some of its history or figure out a way to celebrate Earth Day like walking or biking to your destination, planting a tree or pull some weeds (rather than using pesticides!), or picking up trash at your local beach or creek or in your neighborhood.  Have fun!

New SAFE Training Certification Project Announced in Child Abuse Prevention Month

Prevention is the best hope for reducing child abuse and neglect and improving the lives of children and families. Strengthening families and preventing child abuse requires a shared commitment of individuals and organizations in every community.

Friends for Youth has been the leader in the youth mentoring field in developing guidelines for programs to implement in order to select volunteer mentors who are safe. Based on research over the years to produce our resource SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations  – and more recently for our chapter, Mentor Screening and Youth Safety, included in the new second edition of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring – we help organizations do better by offering recommendations about screening and monitoring tools and process and developing policies and procedures to ensure compliance. Last year, we launched our SAFE Campaign designed to raise more awareness of the issue and raise money for a second edition of our most popular resource, SAFE. You can still view the resources, statistics, tips, and interviews with influential people in the field about the importance of preventing child abuse in mentoring programs.

NEW IN 2013: CERTIFIED SAFE TRAINERS

This year, we’re excited to announce the launch of our SAFE Training Certification project. As we look toward the future of youth mentoring programs and the continued importance of the highest standard in mentor screening and youth safety, Friends for Youth is now prepared to equip a new generation of Certified SAFE Trainers and reach even more mentoring professionals and programs located across the United States and around the world. Friends for Youth is offering the first training and certification for a select number of youth mentoring professionals who serve in training and support capacities from national, state, and regional organizations. These technical assistance providers will convene prior to Friends for Youth’s annual conference on April 17, 2013, for a day of advanced training by Friends for Youth expert staff and frequent collaborator Sgt. Steven McEwan of the San Jose Police Department. Participants will also engage in high-level discussions and collaboration, receiving all current training materials and copies of the resource.

Please contact Sarah Kremer, Mentoring Institute Program Director, at 650-559-0200 or sarah@friendsforyouth.org to inquire about being in the first (or next) cohort of Certified SAFE Trainers!