Last night we had our midyear Mentor training and networking event at Davenport University in Warren. Mentors came to learn and share how their positive influence from one hour a week and can make a huge impact on a young person’s life. One Mentor said, “The third week I got a letter from my mentee’s dad that was really heartwarming. It said his son looks forward to our meetings and he has changed his demeanor and dress when he knows it’s a Tuesday for Winning Futures.”
With 188 Mentors and 590 students served this year, we go above and beyond to make sure all of our volunteers are fully equipped to help our Mentees succeed. Why train our Mentors year after year? The results are clear here at Winning Futures, and in the research. According to the Chronicle of Evidenced-Based Mentoring, higher-quality training leads to greater satisfaction in the mentoring experience for both Mentors and Mentees. Training is especially important to help ease the introduction between Mentees and Mentors and ensure they can begin their work together without hesitation.
Support from the agency is extremely important to the success of the Mentor and we are sure to provide all the beneficial resources to ours. Not only do our Mentors complete a 4 hour training session, they also are “coached” weekly by our staff and reminded about upcoming events, birthdays, and other opportunities to help their Mentees feel supported. Based on our annual evaluations, our trainings work! Our Mentors said they felt like they truly made a difference (96%) and would highly recommend the program to others (90%). We also have seen the benefit pay off in retention of our Mentors each year. We have a remarkable return rate of our volunteers with 76% planning to return after 2013 compared to only a 66% retention rate for nonprofits overall. (http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/via_brief_retention.pdf)
What we strive for at Winning Futures are happy volunteers who return year after year so our programs can grow and more students can be served. We are proud to say it’s working!
If you are interested in being a volunteer with Winning Futures and learning how you can become a Certified Career Readiness Mentor through our training process, please click here.
To read the complete article from The Chronicle of Evidenced-Based Mentoring, please click here