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There are four key ingredients* that will put your mentoring program on
the track to success. If any one of these ingredients is missing, your
program may not be as effective.
Mission
The first ingredient is the mission. The mission needs to address the
following issues: Why do you want to run a mentoring program? Who is your
target population? What are your goals and objectives for this mentoring
program? What are your expectations and desired outcomes of this program?
Your program should have a mission and goals that support the mission.
Model
The next ingredient is the model of the program. The model of your mentoring
program needs to be simple and fit the culture of your organization. Recruiting
and accepting mentors into the program should be done according to the
principles or standards of your organization. While there is no one mentoring
program model that works for all programs and no one model that is the
best. The model you select for your Mentor Program design should be based
on your particular situation. Possible models include one-on-one mentoring,
where you pair up a mentor with a student, or group mentoring, where you
assign one mentor to a group of students or a group of mentors to a group
of students. Once you have decided on this part then you can also choose
to match your student with another student for peer mentoring, or you
can match your student to a mentor from the community. The National
Mentoring Partnership website has the tools to help you plan your
program. While the web site is geared for youth-based mentoring, much
of the material is adaptable for adult-based mentoring.
Matching
The matching of mentors to partners can occur naturally, be facilitated,
or be systematic. A good match can mean a mentoring relationship that
lasts longer than one semester. The section of the web site will give
you advice and tools to help make the match and help support the match.
Monitoring
Monitoring is also critical to the success of your program. It is important
to take the time to check-in and get feedback from your mentors and partners
and to do a program assessment. It will help improve the overall quality
of the mentoring program. This feedback can come in several different
forms such as interviews and evaluation forms. These sample forms can
be found in under evaluation.
*Information courtesy of Peer Resources
Network
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