TOOLS and RESOURCES
The following resources are grouped to provide organizations and institutions with quality information to ensure effective and meaningful programming.
GETTING STARTED
The Elements of Effective Practice include measures any mentoring program can implement to offer the best mentoring possible.
The Elements of Effective Practice Tool Kit is comprised of tools, templates and advice that compliment the Elements of Effective Practice.
If you already have a mentoring program in place, use these guidelines to help you improve your current practices.
Or, use them as a benchmark for determining how your program is doing and for fine-tuning your practices.
Best Practices for Mentoring Programs
This report, an effort to build on the knowledge of what works, The Evaluation, Management and Training Group interviewed 50 mentor program managers throughout California to uncover the practical wisdom they had gained working on the front lines of mentoring.
Mentoring Program Start-Up Toolkit
This toolkit provides practical initial steps to establish a youth mentoring program.
ABC’s of School Based Mentoring
This informative tool provides valuable insights on the basics of effective school based mentoring.
State Liability Laws for Charitable Organizations and Volunteers
This overview provides important information regarding laws that impact charitable organizations and volunteers.
back to top
PROGRAM DESIGN & PLANNING
Foundations of Successful Youth Mentoring: A Guidebook for Program Development:
Meant to give your program a solid understanding of what it takes to build a successful program, with the expectation that you will build on this foundation by continuing to implement new ideas, apply new mentoring research, and refine your program’s strategies and services over time.
Generic Mentoring Program Policy and Procedure Manual
This resource makes it simple for mentoring programs to create their own customized manual to guide both policy and day-to-day services. Customizable Template
Program Operations Manual & Examples
back to top
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
NWREL: Technical Assistance Packet Series:
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's National Mentoring Center is one of the nation's premier training and technical assistance providers for youth mentoring programs and initiatives and has over 20 years experience providing training, resources, and online services to local mentoring programs and federal and state agencies.
1: Recruiting Mentors: A Guide to Finding Volunteers to Work with Youth (2001):
2: Building Relationships: a Guide for New Mentors (2001)
3: Training New Mentors: www.nwrel.org/mentoring/pdf/packfive.pdf
4: Supporting Mentors
5: Creating and Sustaining a Successful Match
6: Measuring the Quality of Mentor Youth Relationships: A Tool for Mentoring Programs
7: Training Mentees
back to top
SUSTAINABLITY PLANNING AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Finance Project Report
This resource examines effective planning strategies that leaders and stakeholders can use to address these concerns: building partnerships with businesses and foundations, conducting community fundraising to generate revenue, and maximizing public revenue.
VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT
Points of Light: Volunteer Center Membership Directory
The Volunteer Center Membership Directory provides detailed profiles of members that comprise the Volunteer Center National Network. All Volunteer Centers listed are full members, seeking full membership, or a satellite office location of the Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network. Here is a summary of the statistics gathered from Volunteer Centers.
Working With Mentors
Recruitment strategies, screening, training, and matching ideas for working with mentors.
Recruiting
Here you'll find resources to help you design a recruitment campaign, including sample recruitment materials and more.
Recruiting Mentors – A Guide To Finding Volunteers To Work With Youth
Drawing on effective practices used by volunteer-based organizations and on research findings about mentoring, the following material describes recruitment strategies that programs can adapt to meet their particular circumstances.
Preparing Participants for Mentoring: The U.S. Department of Education Mentoring Program’s Guide to Initial Training of Volunteers, Youth, and Parents
This guidebook is designed to help mentoring programs prepare for and deliver initial training sessions for mentors, parents, and youth participants. Many of the concepts and techniques in this book will also be useful for ongoing training situations as your program provides continued support to participants.
Training New Mentors
A comprehensive guide to providing mentors with initial training, complete with over a dozen ready-to-use training activities.
back to top
RISK PREPARATION
Insurance Basics for Mentoring Programs
Risk Analysis 1
Risk Analysis 2
Risk Analysis 3
Risk Analysis 4
Risk Analysis 5
EVALUATION
Getting to Outcomes
Measuring the Quality of the Relationships
Outcome Measurement
back to top
MENTORING FOR SPECIFIC POPULATIONS
Tools For Mentoring Adolescents
Tools for Mentoring Adolescents were developed by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota in collaboration with the Search Institute to support and strengthen relationships between mentors and mentees.
Partners for Youth with Disabilities
Partners for Youth with Disabilities, Inc. (PYD) is committed to empowering young people with disabilities to reach their full potential for personal development.
E-MENTORING
iMentor
Since 1999, iMentor has been cultivating relationships between young people and volunteer adult mentors though an innovative combination of e-mail correspondence and in-person meetings.
ITP
The International Telementor Program (ITP) facilitates electronic mentoring relationships between professional adults and students worldwide, and is recognized as the leader in the field of academic based mentoring. ITP serves students in K-12 and home school environments as well as college and university settings.
icouldbe.org mentors the next generation through the Internet. icouldbe.org links teens electronically to mentors in a wide range of careers.
MENTOR E-Mentor Training
MENTOR online e-mentor training takes you through the steps of becoming a mentor. Included in this training is the Learn to E-Mentor workbook which is a downloadable file that has been provided to help you learn how to apply your own life experience to the process of mentoring.
GENERAL RESOURCES
Mentoring: A Promising Strategy for Youth Development
Do mentoring programs work? Or, to put it another way: Are young people who participate in these programs better off because of this participation? To address these questions, Child Trends reviewed studies of ten youth mentoring programs, including both nationwide and locally based programs. This Research Brief brings together highlights from these multiple studies.
Child Trends DataBank
Child Trends is and independent, nonpartisan research center providing information on groundbreaking research, policy insights, program guidance, and exposing emerging trends and issues.
Learns: Youth Impact
In-depth articles for tutor, mentor, and other youth-focused programs
Resources in IYI's Virginia Beall-Ball library on mentoring
back to top