Be A Mentor Program

Mission: Cause at-risk youth to understand the relationship between choices and consequences on their quest to becoming productive citizens through the help of community volunteer mentors.

Sample Projects: Hayward Community Day School - Youth ages 11 - 17 who have been expelled from their home school for violence and/or drug related issues; or other disruptive behavior. Many are on parole.

Gang Reduction Intervention Program (GRIP) - Youth at Hayward High School and American High School in Fremont who were identified as youth with a high potential for gang activity.

Foster Care Group Homes - 30 youth from 6 East Bay group homes who have been emotionally and/or physically abused and typically untrusting of adults.

Castlemont High School, Oakland - 30 youth both male and female in a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.

Children of Incarcerated Parents - 60 children in the Los Angeles area who have one or both parents incarcerated and need a steady, positive adult role model

Direct Services Recruitment, background clearance and screening, and training of adult volunteers to be matched one-to-one or in groups with at-risk youth. Identify youth at-risk of dropping out of school, exhibiting violent behavior, and exhibiting signs of drug and alcohol abuse. Interview mentors and youth to make appropriate matches and provide support services for both.

Infrastructure Services With many great programs in existence, there is a great need for capacity building. The intent of the Be A Mentor infrastructure and capacity building systems is to eliminate redundancy of logistical tasks required to set up and manage programs and projects; and allow program operators to focus efforts on the volunteers and the youth they are working with. Primary elements of capacity building include recruitment of volunteers, background clearing/screening, and training of volunteer applicants so they are ready to serve.

Be A Mentor, Inc. offers web-based systems and tools that utilize a single database. Programs in a region have prospective volunteers complete an online application, which is submitted to the Be A Mentor database. Applicants then go through a stringent background investigation and clearance, and screening process. As part of the screening process, applicants participate in training classes. Once applicants are cleared and are ready to serve, their entire electronic file is available to individual program operators via login ID and password on the secure Be A Mentor web site. Program operators have online tools available to track and monitor each volunteer matched individually with a youth or in a group.