Session Recording

For our April 2023 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Chloe Carter of Chesterfield County Youth Services and Amaris Ramsey from MENTOR National for a discussion Scaling Youth Leadership Opportunities. Some topics our speaker covered:

• Why is it important to have youth leadership opportunities and what is the history of youth leadership?
• How can mentors and other involved adults create organic youth leadership opportunities?
• How can a mentor assist a youth who isn’t as comfortable stepping into a leadership role find the confidence to take those opportunities?

Session Recording

For our March 2023 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Charles Barrett of the National Association of School Psychologists, Jo Hawke of the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, and Ashley Williams of Well Collective for a discussion on Tackling Trauma Together. Some topics our speaker covered:

• How is trauma exhibited in youth? How do you recognize it?
• What are some examples of mindfulness techniques that mentors could use to support a youth impacted by trauma?
• How does a mentor know when additional clinical support is needed, and how do they help a youth and family gain access to those resources?

Session Recording

For our February 2023 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Nick Williams of VCU’s School of Business and Jacqueline Woodbridge of Office of Communications and Public Information in the City of Alexandria for a more in-depth discussion on marketing, social media, and branding for mentoring programs. Some topics our speaker covered:

• Visual examples of marketing materials;
• Small group discussions on how to recruit interns/volunteers and volunteer vs fundraising marketing in breakout rooms;
• And a Q & A to answer specific questions that your program has about their marketing and branding

Session Recording

For our January 2023 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Nick Williams of VCU’s School of Business and Jacqueline Woodbridge of Office of Communications and Public Information in the City of Alexandria for a discussion on marketing, social media, and branding for mentoring programs. Some topics our speaker discussed:

• Where do you start with building a brand for your organization?
• How do you sustain the brand through constantly changing environments?
• How do you balance the different types of marketing communications (like fundraising, volunteer recruitment, event marketing, etc.) that your organization might do and ensure you reach the right audience?

Session Recording

For our December 2022 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Shariful Khan of Public Justice, a Skadden Fellow with the Students’ Civil Rights Project, for a discussion on protecting children from racism in schools. Some topics our speaker discussed:

• What does racial harassment/discrimination for the purposes of a Title VI violation look like?
• What should you do if a student encounters racial harassment or discriminatory discipline in school?
• What can mentors/parents do to support their child in those circumstances?

Session Recording

For our November 2022 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Jennifer Kriebl, the national director of YMCA of San Francisco’s Reach and Rise Mentoring Program and Manolya Tanyu, a senior researcher at American Institutes for Research for a discussion about infusing therapeutic approaches to mentoring using strategies from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Some topics our speakers discussed:

• How to support mentors to find natural ways to use, model, and reinforce cognitive behavioral strategies while mentoring youth
• How our thinking patterns shape the way we interact with others and feel about ourselves
• How to identify and restructure unhelpful thought patterns, so that we can promote positive feelings and interactions

Session Recording

For our October 2022 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Rebecca Singhavong from Latinas Leading Tomorrow and Lisa Zajur from the Virginia Hispanic Foundation for a discussion about culturally relevant practices for mentoring Latinx youth. Some questions our speakers answered:

• The Latinx community is extremely diverse, do you have any thought on finding the right mentor in terms of the diversity within the community?
• Why is having a role model important in the Latino community?
• What advice would you give other programs who are looking to provide culturally relevant mentoring to Latinx youth?

Session Recording

For our September 2022 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Ryan Bell from The Academy, Robert Gray from The Uhuru Foundation, and J.T. Hasty from Townebank for a discussion about strategies, barriers, and mindset shifts for recruiting Black men as mentors.  Some questions our speakers answered:

• What role do mentor recruitment and screening practices play in forming barriers for Black men to join mentoring programs?
• How can programs begin to examine their policies and cultural practices that form barriers for Black men to join programs as mentors?
• How can mentoring programs build trust with the Black men they are trying to recruit?

Session Recording

For our August 2022 Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Xavier Vazquez of Bolder Options, Nicki Patnaude of MENTOR, and Jerod Petersen of Kids n’ Kinship for a conversation about how to build more inclusive mentoring programs. Some questions our speakers answered:

• What has your program’s inclusivity journey looked like? What progress have you made and what are you still working on?
• How can mentoring programs and mentors support LGBTQ+ youth in an era of “Don’t Say Gay Bills”?
• What advice would you give to programs that are looking to be more inclusive but don’t know where to start?

Session Recording

For June’s Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Chekesha White, Founder and Executive Director of G.I.R.L.S. Club and members from her talented team of staff and mentors for a discussion on strategies for keeping mentors engaged for the long haul. Some questions the G.I.R.L.S. Club crew answered:

• What strategies has your program used for mentor retention? What has been most successful?
• How have you overcome barriers to mentor retention over the years?
• What advice do you have for programs that are struggling to retain their mentors?

Session Recording

For May’s Community Coffee Hour, we celebrated Mental Health Awareness Month with Marcy Thornhill from Kollege and Kareer 4 Youth, who joined us for a conversation about helping youth stay safe while using social media. The conversation included how mentors and programs can help buffer some of the negative impacts of social media on young people. Some questions Marcy answered:

• How can mentors and mentoring programs support youth who may be experiencing negative effects from social media?
• How can mentors, mentoring programs, and families help keep youth safe on social media?
• What should a mentor, mentoring program, or parent do if they learn that a young person is being bullied over social media?

Session Recording

For April’s Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by Erick King of Capital Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP) and Kelly Ryan from Empowering Our Youth (EOY) Foundation for a conversation about leveraging strategic relationships that lead to funding and partnership opportunities that ultimately empower youth. Erick and Kelly have both experienced explosive growth in their mentoring programs over a short period of time, and share their lessons-learned with you! Some questions our guest speakers answered:

• How did you identify, approach, and develop your strategic partnerships?
• What has been your approach to finding funding opportunities and cultivating relationships with funders and donors?
• How has your program leveraged social media to identify and cultivate strategic relationships?

Session Recording

In honor of Women’s History Month, March’s Community Coffee Hour focused on programming that supports girls and young women. We shared highlights and challenges of girl-focused programs and heard from one mentoring organization that provides intergenerational mentoring experiences to girls, young women, and professional women. Kimberly Baston from Strong Women, Strong Girls joined us to discuss their intergenerational mentoring model that currently benefiting females in Boston, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, and potentially a town near you soon as they look to expand! Learn more about Strong Women, Strong Girls here: https://swsg.org/.

Session Recording | PowerPoint

February’s Community Coffee Hour was remixed as a mid-day “pick me up!” We were joined by Tammie Mobley, Founder of R.E.A.L (Responsible, Empowered and Loved) Girlz and Bianca Myrick, Founder of Pretty Purposed for a discussion about what Critical Mentoring is and strategies that organizations can use to become more youth-centric and accommodating to the youth and families they work with. Critical mentoring is defined as mentoring that:

1. Fully considers race, ethnicity, gender, class and sexuality when building the infrastructure for programs
2. Focuses on critical consciousness and transformation rather than assimilation and adaptation
3. Places emphasis on the whole community, the whole protégé, rather than just parts of the whole
4. Includes the needs of the community and the needs of the youth in the community (not about us without us)
5. Promotes and supports mentor/protégé partnerships for community transformation

Session Recording | PowerPoint

For January 2022’s Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by special guest Dreamel Spady, LCSW, for a discussion on compassion fatigue. What is it? How do we recognize it in ourselves and others? What can we do to combat it in our work with youth? This timely conversation on promoting wellness and self-care among program staff, mentors and volunteers, and everyone in our communities who is invested in supporting young people was a great way to kick off the New Year!

Session Recording

For December 2021’s Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by two mentoring organizations who shared their experiences and best practices for partnering with school systems to provide mentoring to young people. Ellie Martinez from BBBS Services, Inc., and Grishma Rodrigues and Arya Pazhwak from MEGA Mentors answered questions including:

• How did your program first establish relationships with schools?
• What are some lessons your program has learned from your time building and maintaining relationships with schools?
• How has COVID impacted your relationship with schools?
• What advice would you offer to a mentoring program that is trying to establish relationships with schools right now?

Session Recording

For November’s Community Coffee Hour, we were joined by three licensed mental health professionals for a panel discussion on how mentors and mentoring programs can help youth manage anxiety and depression. Our panelists answered questions including:

• How can adult mentors and volunteers support young people who are struggling with mental health?
• What resources can mentors and programs connect young people / their families with when they are struggling with mental health?
• What is the best way for mentors to check in with young people about their mental health?

There was no recording for this session. See resources below.

October’s Community Coffee Hour provided open space to small group discussion about current mentor recruitment successes, challenges, and opportunities. One group focused on recruiting mentors for e-mentoring, peer-led by Laura Leporati of AMP! Metro Richmond. One group focused on recruiting mentors for in-person mentoring, peer-led by David Crisafi of L.A.U.N.C.H. for Life.

Resources:

MENTOR Virginia recently hosted a workshop on mentor and mentee recruitment that reviewed many helpful resources.

• Recording of Recruiting Mentors & Mentees (Part 2: EEP Workshop Series)
• Slides from Recruiting Mentors & Mentees (Part 2: EEP Workshop Series)
• Companion Workbook from Recruiting Mentors & Mentees (Part 2: EEP Workshop Series)

Session Recording

Two guest speakers joined us for our September Community Coffee Hour, each discussing their process for developing relationships and building networks of support around youth. Jose Martinez from Casa Chirilagua shared information about how he and his team build meaningful relationships with families, and how that enables them to provide culturally relevant mentoring to their youth. Rondell Davis from Another Level Youth & Family Services talked about the strategy he has used to build relationships with other youth-serving programs to form stronger referral and resource networks for youth.

Session Recording

Two panelists joined us for our August Community Coffee Hour: Bianca Myrick, the founder of Pretty Purposed and Susan Hallett, Community Investment Consultant to the Bob and Anna Lou Schaberg Foundation. From the perspective of both grant-makers and grant-writers, the panelists discussed the changing landscape of nonprofit fundraising and other critical topics in resource development for mentoring programs. The discussion covered many topics including:

• Building relationships with funders over time and building your organization’s fundraising team
• How many funders are changing their giving strategies to be more equitable and accessible to community organizations
• Tips for how to approach difficult conversations with funders (such as when your program isn’t going to meet expected outcomes)
• The importance of approaching fundraising efforts with a strengths-based lens and language
• How to build your organization’s capacity for fundraising

Session Recording

Special guest Mike Garringer, MENTOR’s Director of Research and Evaluation, joined us for our July Community Coffee Hour. Mike provided best practices and resources for:

• Using your program’s theory of change for evaluation
• Conducting an implementation evaluation
• Measuring relationship quality in mentoring matches
• Conducting an outcome evaluation

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation (with embedded resource links)
• Goals-Based Outcomes Tool (programs can use this tool to help evaluate program success on a match-by-match basis)
• National Quality Mentoring System (programs can engage in NQMS as part of their implementation evaluation processes)

Resources for Brave Conversations on Race/Racism:

• Four Tips for Having Healthy Conversations with Mentees About Race
• Talking About Race
• What White Children Need to Know About Race
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Resources for Other Brave Conversations:

• Inclusivity Resources from Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities
• Having Conversations About Sex and Sexual Health
• Safe Space Kit: A Guide to Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students
• Discussing Delicate Topics: Tips for Mentors
• Conversations About Masculinity: How Mentors Can Support Young Men of Color

Considerations for Virtual, In-Person, and Hybrid Mentoring

The resource above, which was developed based on the questions/concerns of over 15 programs, provides guiding questions and considerations to help mentoring programs plan for upcoming programming in virtual, in-person, and hybrid contexts.

Resources:

• E-Mentoring Program Planning Worksheet
• Guidance on Operating Youth Summer Camps
• CDC Planning Tool for Summer Youth Programs
• Family and Community Engagement for Returning to In-Person Learning
• Risk Management Planning Tool: Risk Bow-Tie
• Sample COVID-19 Waiver for In-Person Activities

Session Recording | PowerPoint Slides

Rameka Blakey, an expert in targeted mentor recruitment with more than 25 years of experience in the mentoring field, shares research-based strategies for building mentor recruitment pipelines for targeted populations including:

• Black male mentors
• Other mentors of color
• Mentors who can support LGBTQ youth
• Mentors who can support foster youth
• Mentors who can support immigrant youth
• Mentors from rural communities

Resources:

• Guide to Recruiting Black Men and Mentors for Black Boys
• Mentoring Immigrant Youth: A Toolkit for Program Coordinators
• Rural Mentoring: Leveraging Community Assets and Creating a Culture of Mentoring
• Chapter on Recruitment (pg 40-44 ): LGBTQ Supplement to the Elements of Effective Practice

Session Recording

Leslie Velez shares how Henrico HEROES has been providing ongoing training and support to their mentors through monthly training videos on topics like resiliency paired with follow-up conversations, allowing for sustained connections and learning even in a time of social distancing. Andy Miller shares how BEST Kids provides ongoing training and support to their mentors through a variety of strategies, including Solidarity Sessions that the program hosted last summer to help mentors have a space to talk about race and learn how to exemplify solidarity with their mentees.

Session Recording

Tricia Howell and Yvonnia Bryant share C4K’s strategies for leveraging youth voice in their mentoring program and how focusing on youth voice has positively impacted and contributed to asset-building for youth in the program.

Lerone Joseph shares about how the Mayor’s Youth Academy built and launched a youth council, how they have supported youth activism and civic engagement through the youth council, and how these efforts have positively impacted youth asset-building.

Ashley Short and Vaughn Garland share about how Art 180 has formed partnerships with community groups and individuals in service of providing asset-building arts opportunities to young people. They also discuss the role of art in empowering youth voice and expression.

Resources:

• Developmental Assets Framework from the Search Institute
• Building Effective Youth Councils from the Forum for Youth Investment
• Tools to Support Youth Activism from Racial Equity Tools

PowerPoint Slides + Resources for Family Engagement

The MENTOR Virginia team discussed strategies for engaging and building trusting relationships with families, both in virtual and in-person settings. Engaging families successfully in your program is an important part of helping each youth benefit as much as possible from your program.