TOPICS

DREAM KEEPERS NEEDED

Protecting our dreams has become one of the most difficult tasks in our contemporary world. Almost every dream I've had has been accompanied by external assaults and self-sabotage. Many of my dreams have simply become compromises. Keeping focused on what matters most, as coach Bruce Elkin has called our dream quest, requires a moral and ethical courage of significant proportion.

Media remind us continuously about the horrors, terrors, and crimes which touch on almost everyone's day to day life. "Our senses are bombarded with aggression," warns Margaret Wheatley, acclaimed speaker and author of Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. Violence, moral challenges, political shenanigans, and the unprecedented examples of leaders engaging in deceit, lying, and cheating appear to be eradicating the positive stories and role models we have for engaging in the activities necessary to achieve our dreams.

Accountability Can Block Dream Fulfillment
Are we also noticing a significant increase in aggressive demands for retribution, punishment, or vengeance when another person or official makes a mistake and strays from his or her own dream path? Has the use of derogatory, demeaning, and disrespectful terms increased when describing someone who does not share our values and dreams? Has righteousness replaced forgiveness and compassion? Are those who have let their dream falter to be despised? Are their mistakes, errors in judgment, and immoral acts so large that retribution rather than justice is the only alternative? Has Western society exaggerated the meaning of accountability so that someone always has to pay? Has assigning blame outstripped identifying and fixing problems as a full-time pursuit?

Recent business news provides two strikingly different examples of blame and accountability. Millions of dollars have been spent identifying, prosecuting, and convicting executives associated with the Enron disaster in the United States. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and pensions; thousands of investors were bilked out of their savings. One of the executives associated with this mess received a 24 year prison sentence; another died from the stress, and still others received assorted prison sentences and punishments. "Heads must roll," was the catch phrase of former employees, government officials, and the general public.

Contrast this with the actions taken by the Sony Corporation when it was discovered their laptop batteries, which are used by almost every major computer maker, had the potential to overheat and catch fire. Sony recalled the millions of batteries and initiated a global replacement system. Such a defect clearly tarnished the Sony brand reputation, and the recall program alone cost Sony more than $430-million (U.S.). But this month Sony announced they had discovered the technical reasons for the defect, issued an apology to the public, and did not fire a single employee. "Take responsibility; and identify and fix the problem," was the catch phrase that went through Sony.

Character Lapses Can Obscure the Dream Path
While assigning blame appears to have become an obsession in western culture, it has also been accompanied an unprecedented number of challenges to moral character. Television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet are crammed with stories about people who were pillars of the community one day, and felons, predators, killers, or untrustworthy the next. In most cases these reports are about normal, everyday people who started off with a dream, but wound-up getting severely side-tracked.

Unfortunately, such detours are not just a case of increased reporting. Instead, there is evidence that many people are engaged in detours from their dreams. A recent study of 36,000 U.S. teens by the Josephson Institute of Ethics sadly revealed that 82% of the teens polled admitted they lied to a parent in the last 12 months about something significant; 57% said they lied two or more times; 62% admitted they lied to a teacher in the last 12 months about something significant; 60% cheated on a test at school within the last 12 months, including 27% who said they lied of the survey itself; and 28% stole something from a store in the past 12 months.

The Josephson study also found that 59% of the students agreed that "in the real world, successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating;" and 42% believed that "A person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed."

Michael Josephson, the founder of the Josephson Institute, describes this disturbing set of statistics about American youth as a "hole in the moral ozone." The results of the Institute's 2006 study are consistent with other surveys conducted previously by the Institute. "It is clear," Mr. Josephson concludes, "that dishonest habits and values have become deeply entrenched in the next generation of corporate executives, cops, politicians, journalists, generals and parents."

Dreams Are Always Present and Can Be Reborn
But there is hope. There is an opportunity to turn this situation around. The Josephson study also found that:

• 98% of all students polled said, "It's important for me to be a person with good character."
• 98% reported that "honesty and trust are essential in personal relationships."
• 97% of the 36,000 young people polled said "It's important to me that people trust me."
• 83% said "It's not worth it to lie or cheat because it hurts your character."
• 94% said "In business and the workplace, trust and honesty are essential."
• 90% said "Most adults in my life consistently set a good example of ethics and character."

This discrepancy between the real world behavior (actions and cynical attitudes) of the young people polled in this survey, and their desire or "dream" about what is truly important in life, is one of the key reasons why coaches, mentors, and peer assistants are essential in today's society. It is just too easy today for young people to become sidetracked from pursuing their dreams. There are no short cuts for the hard work and character building activities necessary for a dream to become a reality.

Coaches, mentors, and peer assistants are in the best position to help people to articulate their dreams, to recognize the detours that interfere with dream progress, and to learn from their detours. Young people particularly need opportunities to learn how to make better choices to stay true to their path. Our willingness to listen, to express curiosity, and to encourage the expression of passion enables us to join with others to reconnect with their true path. Elton Mayo, an Australian social theorist and industrial psychologist, recognized the the need for connection when he said, "One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider our problems, can change our whole outlook on the world."

No one is completely immune from lapses in moral fibre or character. We all have events or actions in our lives that carry forward regret, shame, or guilt. But having a peer coach or mentor in our lives enables us to accept and use a lapse as a way to illuminate more clearly where we desire to be and how we can move toward that destination.

Coaches, mentors, and peer assistants are more often than not role models as well as skilled practitioners. This doesn't mean they haven't experienced their share of troubles, difficulties, and detours. What it does mean is that coaches, mentors, and peer assistants are more likely to have turned such life experiences into growth opportunities. Their ability to share their lives and connect in a supportive, non-judgmental, appreciative manner with their clients, partners, networks and communities contributes greatly to helping others reduce the gap between their current reality and the dreams they hope to achieve.

Everyone deserves to have their dreams protected. Everyone deserves to have someone in their life to help them rekindle the flame that powers their dream. I'm glad to be part of that dream protection team and grateful that so many others have had that impact for me. I hope that this holiday season will be an opportunity for all of us to increase our ability to protect our own dreams as well as the dreams of others.

References
de Zulueta, F. (2007). From pain to violence: The traumatic roots of destructiveness. New York: Wiley.

Elkin, B. (April 11, 2006). Coaching for creating what matters MOST. Simplicity and Success: A Life Coaching Newsletter about Creating What Matters Most, 4, 5. (Retrieved June 25, 2006 from http://www.bruceelkin.com/newsletter/news_vol4_06.html)

Gray, A., Stephens, S., and Van Diest, J. (2006). Simple living for the worn out woman (Lists to live by). Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers. (Available for discount purchase at Amazon.com)

Josephson Institute of Ethics (October 15, 2006). The biennial report card - 2006: The ethics of American youth. Los Angeles, California: Author. (Retrieved October 15, 2006 from http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/reportcard/)

Merrill, R.R., Covey, S.R. (2006). The SPEED of trust: The one thing that changes everything. New York: Free Press. (Available for discount at Amazon.com)

Renard, G. (2004). The disappearance of the universe: Straight talk about illusions, past lives, religion, sex, politics, and the miracles of forgiveness. Carlsbad, California: Hay House. (Available for discount purchase at Amazon.com)

Roehlkepartain, E.C., Ebstyne King, P., Wagener, L., and Benson, P.L. (Eds.) (2006). The handbook of spiritual development in childhood and adolescence. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. (Available for discount purchase at Amazon.com)

Tolle, E. (2004). The power of now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment. Novato, California: New World Library. (Available for discount purchase from Amazon.com)

Wheatley, M. (2004). Solving, not attacking complex problems. A five-state approach based on ancient practice. (Retrieved October 10, 2006 from http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/solvingnotattacking.html)

Wheatley, M. (2005). Finding our way: Leadership for an uncertain time. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. (Available for discount purchase from Amazon.com)

Wolfe, D.A., Jaffe, P.G., and Crooks, C.V. (2006). Adolescent risk behaviors: Why teens experiment and strategies to keep them safe. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. (Available for discount purchase from Amazon.com)

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Sir Richard Burton
English actor

mentor to

Sir Anthony Hopkins
English actor

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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CD-ROM WITH COMPASS AND THE PEER BULLETIN

Do you know someone who could benefit from becoming a member of the Peer Resources Network? Although you are receiving this free newsletter every 45-60 days, members of the Peer Resources Network receive a monthly newsletter, the Peer Bulletin, with additional information, practical tips, announcements, mentor program descriptions, funding opportunities and job openings in mentoring and mentoring research summaries every month.

Do the quotes placed in this newsletter intrigue you? Would you like to know more about the people quoted or read more of what they have to say? Members of the Peer Resources Network receive links and more details regarding each quote when they receive the monthly Peer Bulletin.

In addition Peer Resources Network members receive toll-free coaching and consultation for all mentor program development issues as an additional benefit of membership. Members also receive print versions of Compass: A Magazine for Peer Assistance, Mentorship and Coaching. This magazine has become the only advertising-free, professional, peer-reviewed publication on mentoring, and is filled with timely articles and practical suggestions from experienced mentor program leaders.

The Peer Resources Network is a non-profit organization and is sustained through memberships. The low fee for a one-year individual membership is $75.00 and the fee for an institutional membership, which allows up to five people to share a full membership, is $140.00 for a year. We even have a student rate of $32.10/year. For more details on the benefits as well as a secure online form to sign-up, go to http://www.mentors.ca/PRN.html.

As a bonus for readers of The Mentor News who become members of the Peer Resources Network in December, 2006, we will send you at no additional cost a CD that contains the three past issues and the current issue of Compass: A Magazine for Peer Assistance, Mentorship and Coaching as well as the past 12 months of the Peer Bulletin. In addition we will include the Who Mentored Whom Quiz slide-show, which features dozens of famous mentoring connections. The slide show is in a quiz format, showing the photo of a famous mentor, his or her equally famous partner (mentee) and then reveals the name and the relationship. This CD is free to PRN members and will be sent by postal mail at no cost to any individual category member or the group leader of any institutional membership.

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Jonathan Winters
Comedian and funny farm advocate

mentor to

Robin Williams
Comedian and rehab advocate

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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MENTORING CONFERENCES and EVENTS

Setting Up a Mentoring System in Your Organization
December 7, 2006
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
(800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring and Coaching Skills for Managers
December 8, 2006
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
(800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Developing a Sustainable Mentoring System
December 12-13, 2006
Chicago, Illinois
www.linkageinc.com/learning_events/training/workshops
(781) 402-5555

The Skilled Mentee
December 14, 2006
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
(800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring in the 21st Century (Supporting New Teachers)
January 22-23, 2007
Los Angeles, California
www.askeducation.com
(800) 940-5434
registrations@askeducation.com

Friends for Youth Mentoring Conference
January 25-26, 2007
Oracle Conference Center, Redwood Shores, California
www.homestead.com/prosites-ffy/conference2007.html
(650) 559-0200
sarah@friendsforyouth.org

Setting Up a Mentoring System
February 1, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring Skills for Managers
February 2, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Coaching and Mentoring
February 5-6, 2007
Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
www.sauder.ubc.ca/exec_ed
(604) 822-8455 or (800) 618-3932
exec.ed@sauder.ubc.ca

Setting Up a Mentoring System
March 1, 2007
New York, New York
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring Skills for Managers
March 2, 2007
New York, New York
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentors 2100 Train-the-Trainer Program
March 12-14, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

International Mentoring Association Conference
March 22-24, 2007
Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown, Atlanta, Georgia
www.mentoring-association.org
(269) 387-4174
cedu_ima@wmich.edu

The Skilled Mentee
March 23, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

European Mentoring and Coaching Council Conference
April 3-4, 2007
Ashbridge Business School, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
www.emccouncil.org/conferences.htm
Call for proposals
p.k.stokes@shu.ac.uk

Coaching and Mentoring
April 10-11, 2007
Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
www.sauder.ubc.ca/exec_ed
(604) 822-8455 or (800) 618-3932
exec.ed@sauder.ubc.ca

Setting Up a Mentoring System
April 12, 2007
Washington, DC
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring Skills for Managers
April 13, 2007
Washington, DC
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring in the 21st Century (Supporting New Teachers)
April 13-14, 2007
Dallas, Texas
www.askeducation.com
(800) 940-5434
registrations@askeducation.com

Setting Up a Mentoring System
May 17, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference
May 17-18, 2007
Northwestern University Law School, 375 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com
(312) 492-9614

Mentoring Skills for Managers
May 18, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

Mentoring in the 21st Century (Supporting New Teachers)
May 21-22, 2007
Washington, DC
www.askeducation.com
(800) 940-5434
registrations@askeducation.com

The Skilled Mentee
June 8, 2007
161 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
www.paamentoring.com
Tel: (800) 648-0543 or (312) 648-0849
info@perrone-ambrose.com

3rd National School-Based Mentoring Conference
June 13-14, 2007
Kansas City, Missouri
www.mentormap.org
(816) 842-7082

Mentor Leadership Training & New Teacher Induction
July 3-4, 2007
Club Willow Wells, Waterloo, Ontario
www.peer.ca/trng.html
(800) 567-3700 or (250) 595-3503
rcarr@mentors.ca

European Mentoring and Coaching Council Conference
October 11-13, 2007
DJURÖNÄSET (near Stockholm) Sweden
www.emccouncil.org/conferences.htm
Tel: +44 1992 550246
julie.hay@emccouncil.org

Mentor Michigan 2nd Annual Statewide Mentoring Conference
October 24, 2007
Location in the State of Michigan to be determined
www.michigan.gov
(517) 335-4295

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Robert Altman
Motion picture director

mentor to

Tim Robbins
Actor

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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USE MENTORING LITERATURE TO GUIDE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Peer Resources continually scans the professional and popular literature for articles, books, videos and other useful reference materials. They provide a brief synopsis of the work as well as citation details and summaries in a searchable format on their site at http://www.peer.ca/articles. Each issue of The Mentor News includes some of the many citations added every week.

Alberty, B. (September, 2006). Mentoring to the bottom line. The Scientist, 20, 9, 79.

No company is too small or too successful for a mentoring program to enhance productivity, leadership development, and employee retention. Since rapid growth and constant flux are hallmarks of life science companies, the author believes that a formal mentoring program is an inexpensive and effective way to manage change and growth. The mentoring programs at Intel, Genetech, and Human Genome Sciences are briefly described as examples. The author also provides seven tips for building a mentor program. (Retrieved on September 20, 2006 from http://www.the-scientist.com/article/daily/24481/)

Arnold, E. (2006). Assessing the quality of mentoring: Sinking or learning to swim? ELT Journal, 60, 2, 117-124.

A framework to assess mentoring quality is described and used to evaluate a mentoring program conducted in a large military school in the Middle East. The results match those found in the literature such as the great variability of mentor quality within one school, the need for quality time for mentor-partner pairs, and the lack of real challenge provided by mentors to partners. It raises several issues such as the quality and type of mentor training, the complexity of the mentor role, its similarity to the role of middle management, and the need for support to mentors from within the school.

Bonnett, C., Wildemuth, B.M., and Sonnenwald, D.H. (January, 2006). Interactivity between proteges and scientists in a electronic mentoring program. Instructional Science: An International Journal of Learning and Cognition, 34, 1, 21-61.

This report analyzes the interaction between pairs of corporate research scientists (mentors) and university biology students (partners) during two consecutive implementations of an electronic mentoring program. Mentor-partner pairs rated as effective by both mentors and partners posted more messages overall, had well-structured threads, had partner and mentor postings that were similar in topic coverage and message length, and had little overt "management" behavior by mentors. However, there appears to be no clear recipe for successful interaction. Not only are there a variety of factors at play in developing an online relationship in this context, but mentor-partner pairs can falter at various stages in the process and in various ways.

Dubois, D.L. and Karcher, M.J. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of youth mentoring. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

This book synthesizes current theory, research, and practice in the field of youth mentoring. The editors, along with leading experts in the field, offer critical and informative analyses of the full spectrum of topics. They examine formal mentoring, natural mentoring relationships, youth mentoring programs for juvenile offenders, pregnant teens, gifted and talented students, abused and neglected youth, and youth with disabilities, and topics such as stages of mentoring relationships, developmental perspectives, types of programs, and a variety of policy issues. The emphasis of the handbook is on the central role of research, both as a testing ground for theory, and as an essential guide for decision-making in all areas of practice. To purchase this book at a discount, go to: Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk

Gross, S.J. (2006). Leadership mentoring: Maintaining school improvement in turbulent times. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.

Developing the next generation of school leaders requires more than simply hiring promising new leaders--it requires developing an effective mentoring program. True leadership mentoring must be carefully crafted with highly educated mentors and prepared partners. This book answers six fundamental questions that school systems interested in creating a leadership-mentoring program should consider. The author shows readers how to use new concepts such as Multiple Ethical Paradigms and Turbulence Theory to help new leaders respond to the ethical dilemmas that are a part of their new assignments. Filled with answers to crucial questions about leadership-mentoring, this book will help school districts to face the task of developing new leaders with greater confidence. To purchase this book at a discount, go to: Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk

Hall, H.R. (2006). Mentoring young men of color: Meeting the needs of African American and Latino students. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education Publishing Group.

This book investigates the value of school-based mentoring and proposes a model to assist young males of color see themselves as redeemable and as fully human. The author includes a range of classroom activities and recommendations that will enrich mentoring and teaching practices and enhance one's perception of students of color. To purchase this book at a discount go to: Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk

Rhodes, J., Spencer, R., Saito, R.N., and Sipe, C.L. (September, 2006). Online mentoring: The promise and challenges of an emerging approach to youth development. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 27, 5, 497-513.

This paper reports on the Digital Heroes Campaign, an electronic mentoring program in which 242 youth were matched with online mentors over a two-year period. Survey, focus group, and interview data, in addition to analyses of the e-mail that pairs exchanged, were examined in order to assess the nature, types, and quality of the relationships that were formed. Despite youths' generally positive self-reports, deep connections between mentors and partners appeared to be relatively rare. The findings suggest that online mentoring programs face significant challenges and that further research is needed to determine under what conditions online mentoring is likely to be most effective. Given the infrequent occurrence of close connections, youth mentoring practitioners and researchers must consider whether online mentoring is likely to promote the kind of "relationships" that might be expected to promote positive youth development. (Contact Jean Rhodes at jean.rhodes@Umb.edu)

Underhill, C.M. (April, 2006). The effectiveness of mentoring programs in corporate settings: A meta-analytical review of the literature. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 68, 2, 292-307.

A review of studies being published over the last 20-25 years revealed that there is not only a lack of studies using or reporting comparison group information but also a general lack of experimental research about mentoring. This quantitative meta-analytic review provides a critical analysis of the effectiveness of mentoring, with an emphasis on research designs that compared career outcomes of mentored individuals to non-mentored individuals. Mentoring does improve career outcomes for individuals, and informal mentoring produced a larger and more significant effect on career outcomes than formal mentoring. There is a need for more research comparing partners and non-partners to determine if it is the receipt of mentoring or individual characteristics that leads to career success.

Washington, D. (2006). A hand to guide me: Legends and leaders celebrate the people who shaped their lives. Des Moines, Iowa: Meredith Books.

Two-time Academy Award-winning American film actor Denzel Washington describes how he found his own mentor through the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, New York, and he details the recollections of 70 other celebrity accounts of how they were guided as youngsters by a caring adult. This anthology includes the accounts of a variety of athletes, authors, artists and former US presidents. Contributors include Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Antwone Fisher, Bonnie Raitt, Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, Dick Vitale, Whoopie Goldberg, John Wooden, and Gloria Steinem, and many others.  To purchase this book at a discount, go to: Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk

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Wynton Marsalis
Trumpet playin' man

mentor to

Harry Connick, Jr.
Piano playin' man

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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CHAMPIONS OF MENTORING

JANUARY is National Mentoring Month in the United States, and the month is spearheaded by Mentor: The National Mentoring Partnership. They have identified January 25, 2007 as the fourth annual "Thank Your Mentor Day" in cooperation with the Harvard Mentoring Project. Harvard has named music impresario Quincy Jones, mentored by Ray Charles among others, and a mentor to many well-known performers, including Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith, as well as former gang members in South Central Los Angeles, as the 2007 Mentor of the Year. Their website provides details of many other famous mentorship pairings.

Mentoring Works provides consultation to organizations to tailor specific mentoring programs, workshops on mentoring, and an extensive offering of information products to support mentors and partners involved in mentoring programs. They provide a number of e-book publications such as a Mentoring Workbook and Mentoring Skills book on their site as well as some free resources and a fortnightly newsletter on mentoring. Peer Resources Network member, Anne Rolfe, the creator of Mentoring Works, also publishes an email series that focuses on the reasons why people need mentors and organizations need mentoring. Mentoring Works is located at PO Box 531, Terrigal, New South Wales 2260 (Australia); Tel: 02 4368 3733; email: ann@mentoring-works.com

The National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM) has just released a free Mentor Recruitment Kit. The free kit includes a DVD, a step-by-step recruitment strategy booklet, and a poster. It can be ordered online from MentorYouth.com. The purpose is "to enlist, encourage, equip, and empower adults in the church and the community to become mentors to young people." Their site also provides a variety of resources, including a registry of mentoring programs, a community message board, mentoring success stories, and an "ask an expert" feature. (Due to production restrictions, the Kit is only available to residents of the USA.)

The Friends for Youth's Mentoring Institute has created a new in-depth manual, "SAFE (Screening Applicants For Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations" that covers all aspects of volunteer/staff screening and monitoring to help keep youth safe. Included are statistics on the prevalence of sexual abuse, characteristics of child predators and their tactics, information about potential victims, and guidelines to follow in order to protect the youth in an organization. The cost is $25.00.

The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal not only includes a variety of articles, including James Spencer's recent article, "Advising and Spirituality: Resources for Academic Professionals," but also provides an opportunity for readers to contribute to an online forum. This week the forum is soliciting responses to the question: "Should an adviser ever advise a student against choosing a particular major?" In the coming weeks, we will be publishing articles about students grading their faculty advisers, advising pre-med students, and leading by example.

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Mariah Carey
Pop singer

mentor to

Christina Aguilera
Pop singer

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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ARE YOU MY MENTOR?
By Patrick Boyle

As mentoring grows more popular, its meaning gets stretched to cover almost everything.

I'm a writer. I coach a boys' baseball team. I see the kids three times a week; they have a great time. I get to know a few of them and their families beyond baseball, but my relationship with most of the boys ends with the three-month season.

Am I a mentor?

"Yes," says Lisa Dougherty, mentoring services director at The Arc of Omaha, a non-profit corporation established by parents to improve the quality of life for all people with developmental disabilities.

"Probably in some way," says Alayne Shoenfeld, partnership development manager at the Memphis Mentoring Partnership, an alliance of non-profit and faith based organizations in Tennessee.

"No, I think you're a coach," says Roxanne McCright, Executive Director of Big Pals~Little Pals, in Columbus, Nebraska.

Anyone see a problem here? A lot of people in the mentoring field do. As the popularity of youth mentoring has exploded in recent years, the meaning of the term has become elastic. "The mentoring bandwagon," Dan Johnson, Executive Director of Kinship of Greater Minneapolis, "includes tutors, coaches, and scout leaders, etc. who are now known as 'mentors.' There are also mentoring 'lite' programs such as electronic 'e-mentoring.'"

"Everybody today is calling their organization a mentoring organization," says Ms. McCright, whose Big Pals~Little Pals didn't even use that term when it began 34 years ago. "I think it's gone overboard a bit."

A report released in May, 2006 by Mentor/National Mentoring Partnership says the number of youth involved in one-to-one mentoring has increased by nearly 20 percent since 2002, to three million. The U.S. Corporation for National and Community Service (www.nationalservice.org/) wants to create another three million mentoring relationships by 2010. That would give the USA more mentors than there are people in any city in America except New York.

Does the nation really have three million mentors, in the true sense of the word? Can it double that? The spread of mentoring raises questions about what mentoring is, and who is a mentor. "Even those of us in the mentoring field often have a difficult time agreeing on the definition," writes Carrie Moffett, senior director of operations at YouthFriends, in Kansas City, Missouri.

That can sure make it tough to run and evaluate mentoring programs. "When the definition of formal mentoring gets watered down, so does the quality. That's the dangerous aspect of leaving it ill-defined," writes Michael Garringer, who moderates the 1,634-member MentorExchange listserv run by the National Mentoring Center.

Mentoring Boom
The root of the problem is that the word is inherently malleable. "Mentoring is a term that applies to all kinds of different settings," says researcher Thomas Smith, who has examined mentoring for the nonprofit research group Public/Private Ventures.

'Mentor' has since been defined in many ways, but to most people it is essentially an older, experienced person who takes a younger person under his wing and guides him or her professionally or personally. Those informal relationships usually develop naturally, often with teachers, coaches and other youth workers, and surveys indicate they are more common than formal mentoring. A baseball coach, for instance, can evolve into an informal mentor for a few kids, "but to most of them, you are simply their coach," says Cindy Sturtevant, director of training and technical assistance for the Mentor/National Mentoring Partnership.

Formal mentoring – in which a mentor/partner match is planned through a structured organization – has gotten hot intermittently over the past two decades, such as when President Clinton urged the country in the early 1990s to develop "a million mentors" for kids.

A LexisNexis search for mentions of "mentoring" in major U.S. newspapers in 1985 turned up four stories. By 1990, there were 113 stories. The searches for 1995 and 2000 got halted because, a message said, "it will return more than 1,000 documents."

The Justice Department's discontinued Juvenile Mentoring Program (commonly known as "JUMP") sometimes received more than 1,000 applicants for 100 grants. From 1995 to 2005, it awarded more than $50 million to 261 programs, according to the National Mentoring Center, which was created and is funded by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

But it seems that mentoring's meaning has expanded more than its actual practice. "It's broadening and it’s getting fuzzy," says consultant David Owen, who provides technical assistance and evaluation to youth agencies in New York City, including agencies that have a 'mentoring' component. "Oftentimes it's something that's cobbled together and people are calling it mentoring," he says. "You start asking, 'What's the percentage of your mentors that are meeting regularly [with their partners]?' and 'How long is the match for?' and you realize they're not quite adhering" to best practice guidelines, such as the ones established by Mentor.

What is Mentoring?
Definitions of mentoring by those dedicated to spreading it – such as Mentor and the new Federal Mentoring Council – are so broadly inclusive that just about any good youth work can be molded to fit. That makes sense if you're trying bring the total number of mentors to six million.

"There are certainly more opportunities to reach young people if you broaden that definition," says council Director Theresa Clower, former Director of the Delaware Mentoring Council.

So are sports coaches mentors? "If they’re impacting that kid in a positive way so that young person can realize his or her potential…then it is, in fact, mentoring," Clower says.

Others feel that opens the door to calling every teacher, coach and youth worker a mentor. "Everybody you come in contact with can influence you," McCright says. "That doesn't mean they're good mentors.…The word mentoring is being overused."

Carla Herrera, who has published studies on mentoring for Public/Private Ventures, says a youth worker who sometimes engages in mentor-like activities "is providing guidance for a brief period of time. … Mentoring is something beyond that."

"Many new to mentoring think that anyone who has an even passing relationship with a child can be thought of as a mentor," writes Michael Garringer of the National Mentoring Center. "They don't seem to realize that simply being around a kid, regardless of how much that kid listens and respects you, doesn't inherently make someone a mentor. A role model, maybe."

Perhaps 'mentoring' can be defined by identifying specific elements in the way mentoring is carried out.

Does a mentoring relationship have to last a certain amount of time? Mentoring definitions typically refer to a "sustained" relationship, while programs say that means at least a year.

Many school-based programs, however, last six to 10 months. "Mentoring 2005," the report released last month by Mentor, said that most mentoring relationships last an average of nine months, and that 38 percent last 12 months.

How about the mentor/partner ratio?

"I believe it is a 1:1 relationship," writes Nancy Paschall, Development Director of Northern Neck Together. That reflects a common view, built on the Big Brothers Big Sisters model. In order to reach more kids, however, some organizations employ group mentoring, where one mentor meets with, say, four to 10 youth at a time.

Does a mentor have to be a volunteer?

Most are, and program directors seem to prefer it. But many are not willing to close the door on the concept of paid mentors, which has gained traction in some programs. (See "Mentoring Pays Off," in the September, 2004 issue of YouthToday.) If they're paid, however, aren't they something we've long had a name for: youth workers?

Do mentors have to be older than the mentees? Usually, but at the Arc of Omaha – which provides mentors to developmentally disabled teens – "We have several mentors that are younger than our mentees," says Dougherty, the mentoring services director.

She, for one, says mentoring must occur face to face. Not everyone agrees; witness the growth of 'e-mentoring.'

What is not Mentoring
For many in the mentoring field, the key lies in the fundamental nature of the relationship, not the action. They focus on intent, or what the relationship is primarily about.

"We see a lot of youth development programs that have mentoring aspects to them," says Polly Roach, Vice President of Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. "That doesn't mean the workers are mentors."

Nothing draws more heat in this regard than tutoring programs that tout themselves as mentoring.

Consider Tennessee Mentorship, in which youth from a high school tutor elementary school kids that they've been matched with. The founder and director of the program, William Byrne, says the high schoolers carry out their work at an elementary school, and that "maybe 70 to 80 percent of the activities are academic."

Byrne has talked about joining the Memphis Mentoring Partnership, but Partnership Development Manager Shoenfeld says Byrne's program is not mentoring. "The purpose of tutoring is academic achievement and support," she says. "The purpose of mentoring is not raising your scores on tests."

Byrne counters that "a good tutor is certainly a good mentor, a good role model."

Even in school-based Big Brothers Big Sisters programs, the "bigs" are not supposed to focus on school work with their "littles."

They can sometimes help with that, says Chief Operating Officer Mack Koonce, but "for us, mentoring is not tutoring. Mentoring is friendship."

No one draws the line between mentoring and other youth services more strongly than the National Mentoring Center's Michael Garringer, who writes: "If a program is going to call itself a mentoring program, then mentoring better be the primary service they offer and their matches better be developmentally focused. You can work on grades, getting into college, staying off drugs and out of gangs....But if the relationship itself isn't the primary focus of your agency's work, then stop talking about yourself as a mentoring program. You're doing something else using adults to help youth (and god bless ya) but it ain’t mentoring."

The parents of the boys on my baseball team recognized the distinction in a different way. "Am I a mentor to your sons?" I asked in an e-mail. One mother said a mentor has to reach a kid "individually," which I've done with her son, whom I know outside of baseball. I hope I've reached him and other boys that way. But the parents also said a mentoring relationship must be long-term and intense, that it should include a lot of one-on-one time, and that the mentoring aspect must be intentional for both parties.

By those standards, I don't earn the title. I certainly can't pay whatever price might be set by Johnson, the executive director of Kinship of Greater Minneapolis. "The mentoring bandwagon has indeed gotten crowded," he writes. “Perhaps it is time to increase the cost of admission to ride along?"

(This article was revised and reprinted with permission of the author from the June, 2006 issue of Youth Today: The Newspaper on Youth Work)

About the Author
Patrick Boyle is the Editor of Youth Today, an independent, nationally distributed newspaper that is read by more than 70,000 professionals in the youth service field. Subscriptions are available at http://www.youthtoday.org Mr. Boyle can be contacted at pboyle@youthtoday.org

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Billy Jean King
Professional Tennis Player

mentor to

Zina Garrison
Professional Tennis Player

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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MENTORING GOES TO THE MOVIES

Probably the best video available about adult mentoring is "Mentoring Makes a Difference" video set created by Dr. Linda Phillips-Jones of The Mentoring Group. This excellent video kit contains a 43-minute video aimed at mentors, and a 43-minute video primarily for partners. The Mentoring Group also provides workbooks and guides to go with the videos. The resources cover all the key issues and 14 critical skills for successful mentoring relationships. They can be used for workshop training, management and general information sessions, support for program coordinators, and assistance for participants who miss some of the training to view at home. Each video is $225, and I don't think they are sold separately. For details and ordering go to The Mentoring Group website: http://www.mentoringgroup.com

"Elders as Mentors: A Training Program for Older Adults" is a video that includes scenarios presented through short dramatic skits. Each vignette can be used separately in mentor training, and the video includes a Facilitator’s Guide, which presents process questions and activities related to the issues presented in each skit. The cost is $65.00 for this ten minute video and can be ordered from Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning, 1601 North Broad Street, Room 206, USB, Philadelphia, PA 19122, Attention: Olivia DeCousey; Tel: (215) 204-3767. (There is also an "Elder Mentor Handbook," which is described as a basic “what you need to know” resource for elder mentors working with at-risk youth.)

Another video is "Mentoring: How to Develop Successful Mentor Behaviors (Video Package)" based on the work of Gordon F. Shea. One video provides mentoring details and testimonials from mentors working in business settings; and the second provides interactive scenarios depicting effective and less effective mentoring interactions. Both videos can be used with an included training book and set of overheads that can be used to customize an information or training session. This was originally provided by Crisp Learning, but they have been purchased by another company and the video package ($295.00) is available at http://www.courseilt.com/ilt_Detail.cfm?ISBN=1-56052-220-8&searchText=mentoring&submit=Go

The "Complete Mentoring Program" is a video series created by Dr. Norm Cohen and provides over 90-minutes of actors showing essential mentor behaviors in six dimensions. The series includes:
Becoming a Mentor: A Video-Based Workshop Series (6 videos) and a number of print guides, inventories, planners, and a powerpoint presentation. The cost is $995.00 and can be ordered from HRD Press (HRD Press, 22 Amherst Road, Amherst, MA 01002 Phone: 800-822-2801 or 413-253-3488) at: http://www.hrdpress.com/Complete-Mentoring-Program-CMP?sc=2&category=120

"Peer Mentoring: On Track with Peer Mentoring in Education" features peer mentors in real school situations and is produced by Greenwood Partnership for Sandwell Business Education Partnership, 2nd Floor, Black Country House, Rounds Green Road, Oldbury, West Midlands, UK B69 2DG; Tel: 0121 569 2350. I haven't seen this one yet, so I can't tell you about the quality and content.

"Mentoring to Improve Schools," created in 1999, consists of two videos: "Successful Mentoring Programs" (40 minutes) and "Effective Mentoring Practices" (25 minutes). These two come with a facilitator's guide, workshop scripts, handouts and overheads. The videos have been developed to establish or refine a mentoring program for new and beginning teachers, or beginning administrators. The program provides guidance for orientation, building trusting relationships, effective communication, mentoring tasks and roles, coaching for instructional improvement, and the mentoring process. The videos illustrate all of these aspects of mentoring so that potential mentors can see what excellent mentoring programs provide and what excellent mentoring practices look like. It is available from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (http://www.ascd.org), Tel: 1-800-933-2723 or by mail: ASCD, P.O. Box 79760, Baltimore, MD 21279-0760. The Program set cost is $189.00 for ASCD Members, and $229.00 for non-members.

"The Gift of Learning: A Meeting Opener Video on the Value of the Mentoring Relationship" is a video where the value of the mentoring relationship is highlighted. It's told through a first-person narrative of a boy trying to learn woodworking. It emphasizes how a caring relationship is a key to successful learning. The goals associated with this video include: understanding the value of the mentoring relationship, from the perspective of both the mentor and the partner; understanding the nature of learning, how we learn best when shown through a "hands-on" approach; recognizing the challenge to discover the joy of selflessly giving of ourselves in order to help others succeed; and understanding the importance of recognizing those who have thoughtfully mentored us, and show our appreciation by doing the same for others. It's only five minutes and costs $295.00; and can be ordered from HumaNext/ Communication Ideas, Tel: 1-973-427-3004.

"The Leader as Mentor" is a 15-minute video, produced in 1995, that focuses on the value of mentoring for managers. Topics include: mentoring in the 21st century organization, what does a mentor do?, effective mentoring, getting started, and the leader as mentor. The purchase price is $775 for the VHS or DVD versions and $295 as a rental. The video comes with a facilitator/self-study guide. It can be ordered through International Tele-Film (www.itf.ca), Tel: (416) 252-1173 or (800) 561-4300.

Another mentoring video available from International Tele-Film (www.itf.ca) is a three-part series, titled: "Mentoring: A Way of Nature Series." Part I (22-minutes) teaches viewers how to recognize what adult mentoring is so that it can be encouraged within an organization; part II (16-minutes) examines mentors, role models and peer relationships and identifies the pros and cons of each compared to mentoring; and part III (16-minutes) provides details about what motivates people to become mentors and how to encourage this type of action within an organization. A leader's guide and workbook is available for each video in the series. The purchase price for the series is $850 (or $395 each), or a fee of $175 to rent any one of the series ($395 rental for the series). The series comes with a facilitator/self-study guide. It can be ordered through International Tele-Film (www.itf.ca), Tel: (416) 252-1173 or (800) 561-4300.

"Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning" is based on the book of the same name by Chip R. Bell. This video shows Chip Bell explaining his simple, yet comprehensive growth and reciprocal learning system for mentoring: SAGE (surrender, accept, gift, and extend). Each stage in the relationship between a manager and subordinate is illustrated with interactive scenarios. The video can be ordered from AIM Learning at http://www.aimlearninggroup.com/. A seven-day rental is $255.00 and the purchase price for this 31-minute video is $695.00.

The Friends for Youth Mentoring Institute has produced "A Friend for Life" mentoring video that
highlights success stories, youth insights, parent perspectives, and the positive effects of quality mentoring relationships. The vignettes are captivating, informative, and have the emotional "hook" to engage potential volunteers. The video includes snapshots of five friendships, as well as testimonials from a parent and partners. Stories highlight the benefits volunteers find in being mentors, partners having a reason to stay in school and out of trouble, reflections from former partners (now successful adults) on how the mentoring relationship positively influenced and changed their lives. The video is eight minutes in length and can be used for orientations, trainings, and/or recruitment purposes. The cost is $30.00 (plus shipping and handling). The video is available in VHS format and can be ordered from: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-ffy/NewMIServicesProducts.html or call: (650) 559-0200.

While not exactly training videos, there are a number of Public Service Announcement (PSA's) videos now available on various websites. The California Governor's Mentoring website at http://www.mentoring.ca.gov/nmm_PSAs2005.shtm has several that show various celebrities acting as advocates for mentoring (John Glenn, Cal Ripken Jr., Darrell Green, Quincy Jones, Edward James Olmos, and Martin Sheen, for example.) The PSA's are downloadable in Windows Media format.

There are also some mentoring PSA's available from Veoh at: http://www.veoh.com/search.html?query=mentoring&type=&numResults=20

A clip from an NBC news story on mentoring showing adults and youth working together is available on the website of the National Mentoring Partnership at http://www.mentoring.org/mentoring_month/state_activities/index.php

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Reba McEntire
Country singer and actress

mentor to

Martina McBride
Country singer

~ From Famous Mentor Pairings ~

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