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!

Spotlight Friendship: Jessica, Asit + Alfred

 Asit and Jessica were matched with their Junior Friend Alfred in March of 2012. They’ve truly had an awesome Friendship. 

   This trio has done some awesome activities together from rock climbing to mini-golfing. During some activities Asit and Jessica’s dog Sierra joined in the fun. 

   The trio also attended many Friends for Youth activities, such as Jump Sky High, our Beach Party, and the “We’re All Made Out of Stars” planetarium visit. They also took advantage of free tickets for the circus, A’s games, and other events. 

   Asit, Jessica, and Alfred’s laughs and good times under the sun are far from being over. They are planning on being in each others life for a very very very long time. 

Mentor Tip

Spring is here! Learn about Spring Equinox Celebrations Around the World, find some fun spring activities, or just get outside to enjoy the warmer weather and spring flowers, take a walk, plants some seeds, or get some sidewalk chalk and draw, play a game of tic-tac-toe or hangman, or create an obstacle course.  Have fun!

Volunteering: The Top 6 Things You'll GET

We often equate volunteering with "giving" our time. We talk about "providing for the needy" and "giving back." We want to be selfless, and our implicit logic is that being giving is being generous, and being generous is being selfless. Sometimes though, I think such logic is confused and unhelpful. The idea that volunteering is "giving back" infers that volunteers aren't receiving anything, or, at least, that they aren't receiving as much as they are investing.

While giving back is good, it's an assumption that dilutes a more vivid understanding of the benefits of volunteering. In my experience with volunteer mentors at Friends for Youth, the trade off between giving and receiving is at least equal, and more often than not it is the adult volunteer who gets the most out of the experience of mentoring.

So instead of listing the things you might give as a volunteer mentor, I want to highlight the top six things you'll get:

6. Community. As a mentor you become friends with somebody you most likely would never have met otherwise. By becoming friends you are exposed to their community and they are exposed to yours. Like trees that grow bigger as their roots spread, the more connections we create the stronger our community becomes.

5. Oh, the things you'll learn! Has an 8 year old ever beat you at skee-ball? As a mentor this could easily happen. When you're a mentor you might get beat at a lot of things, and that's your opportunity to learn from your mentee. It's consistently impressive to see what youth are able to teach adults.

4. Oh, the things you'll forget! The adult world is unfortunately not nearly so fantastical, wonderful or hysterical as the world of youth. As a mentor you get to be removed, at least for a few hours per week, from some of the drudgery of adulthood.

3. Oh, the things you'll remember! Hanging out with a kid means remembering what it was like to be a kid. Upon revisiting your inner kid, you might find things haven't changed much.

2. Oh, the places you'll go! Mentoring with Friends for Youth is all about having fun. We help you do that in many ways, from providing you with support materials like our unique mentoring journal, to giving out free tickets to events like 49ers and SF Giants games.

1. Friendship. Let us know if you discover anything more important in life than true Friendship. At Friends for Youth we've done Friendship for more than 34 years, and we do it very well. We hope you'll join us.

Friends for Youth's 14th Annual Mentoring Conference

Friends for Youth's 14th Annual Mentoring Conference, Making the Most of Mentoring, on April 18 and 19, 2013, at Oracle Santa Clara Conference Center, CA, is now open for registration!

Mentoring is once again a popular prevention and intervention strategy, especially within large programs that offer other services to more vulnerable populations of youth. Many of us are now aware of and follow standards and practices that make services effective, which shows how far we’ve come as a field. But, do we really know what it takes to make youth mentoring sustainable and consistent, thereby having an even greater impact on our communities? This year, we address strategies to make the most of mentoring for staff, program participants, and community supporters. Join us to grow your skills, learn from expert presenters and researchers, and feel supported by your peers. Our goal, as always, is for participants to walk away with concrete tools and practical suggestions to easily implement into their new or existing programs, making both attendees and their programs stronger and better able to serve their communities.

This year's conference features David DuBois, Ph.D., and Michael Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D., as Research Keynote Speakers, who will discuss the new second edition of the Handbook on Youth Mentoring. The conference features 10 pre-conference courses and a bonus keynote speaker on Thursday and 15 workshop sessions on Friday. All sessions will be held at presenting sponsor Oracle’s Santa Clara Conference Center. Complimentary shuttle service between the conference hotel, the Biltmore Hotel and Suites, and the Oracle Conference Center will be provided on both days.

Early-bird registration fees are in place until by March 18 to take advantage of $205 for both days or $115 for one day. Regular registration fees of $255 for both days and $145 for one day go into effect after March 18, 2013.

All details, including accommodations, online registration, conference fees, and the workshop schedule, are online at http://www.friendsforyouth.org/MI-Conference.html

We look forward to seeing you there!

The 2013 Fashion Show: Thanks Nordstrom!

The 2013 Friends for Youth Fashion Show at Nordstrom was a great success. More than 80 supporters attended and the event met its goal of raising $10,000!

There was a wonderful silent auction featuring items like a basket full of various wines, a hotel stay and even a basket for cat lovers!

There was a breakfast buffet with fruit skewers, mini quiches, assorted pastries and coffee. The buffet could be topped off with a nice mimosa.

Attendees saw a presentation featuring Jeff Day, a former Junior Friend and now a candidate for a Masters in Education at NDNU. After Jeff spoke Nordstrom put on an incomparable fashion show, complete with spring styles from all departments in the store!

Thank you Nordstrom, for helping make the 2013 Fashion Show a big success!