Program highlight: LUK Inc.

This guest post is courtesy of Hilary Amedy, program coordinator at LUK Inc. in Fitchburg. Hilary answered some questions from Mass Mentoring regarding her program and its National Mentoring Month events.

1. What is your role at the organization? Please give us some information about your program.

I am the program coordinator for LUK. LUK began its mentoring program in 2003. We currently serve youth in the 66 towns of central MA, ages 6 through 17, with a focus on youth with disabilities and youth involved in the foster care system.

2. Why is mentoring important?

Everyone needs someone to look up to and learn from. Mentors can be that one person who can really influence some of our most at-risk youth in making positive life choices.

3. What did your program do to celebrate National Mentoring Month?

Our program hosted an event at the newly renovated Columbia Tavern in Leominster. We invited current mentors, alumni mentors, and partners, and encouraged mentors to bring friends who may be interested in becoming mentors. We provided food with a cash bar.

4. What was the outcome of the event?

There were approximately 25 folks who came to the event, which included mentors, friends, advisory board members, and staff. Another 15 or so patrons of the Columbia Tavern received information about our program.

5. What was the overall response to the event?

We were hoping for a bigger turnout. Some mentors could not come at the last minute, and we wished that someone from the media had responded to our invitation. People that attended had a wonderful time though.

6. Did you do anything else for National Mentoring Month?

We produced a mentoring PSA that ran on local cable for a total of 307 telecasts; a web banner is on the Charter 3 TV Worcester website for 3 months; Fidelity Bank in Fitchburg and Worcester ran NMM/LUK Mentoring information on their electronic signs for the month of January; and NMM/LUK Mentoring banners were displayed in front of the main LUK office in Fitchburg and on the Leominster Connector (Rt. 2/Rt. 190) median in Leominster during January. LUK Mentoring also had a “dough raiser” at UNO’s in Leominster where the NMM postcards were on the tables for the two days of the fundraiser. NMM bookmarks were distributed to local libraries.

7. How can people get in touch with your program for additional information?

Mentoring staff can be reached at 800-579-0000 or emailed at mentoring@luk.org. They may also visit our web site at www.luk.org.

An unlikely meeting

As part of our ongoing Mentors of Color campaign, a recruitment campaign to target new mentors of color and enhance the cultural competency of mentoring programs, we are pleased to be able to highlight mentors of color making an impact in the community during Black History Month.

This guest post is written by Derrick Duplessy, executive director of the Duplessy Foundation. Derrick is a member of the Mentors of Color advisory council. If you would like more information about the Mentors of Color campaign, please email Bernice Osborne, manager of the Mentors of Color campaign, at bosborne@massmentors.org.

It’s funny how, where, and why mentoring takes place. I want to tell you a story about a mentoring relationship that developed in an unlikely scenario.

My good friend Warren, used to live in South Boston and we played basketball on a court near a church on East Third Street. It was an interesting time for me personally because I was working as an executive consultant yet I still felt the need to find and pursue my calling. Basketball with Warren was a way of clearing my head and putting those worries down for an hour or two.

There was one young man who kept wanting to play. Let’s be clear, he had no chance against me and I proceeded to soundly beat him on the basketball court in almost every game we played. His teams would lose to mine and one-on-one the results were even worse. Ten years his senior and dramatically shorter (he is 6’2 and I am 5’7), I kept beating him. He got so fed up that he actually asked me to teach him about basketball. I thought to myself, “what a bizarre request.” I took him up just to see how far he would go and how much constructive criticism he could take.

The lessons

I found out that the young man’s name was Mike. He liked Manu Ginobili, so I called him Manu. He called me Dwyane Wade. Mike was a junior in high school and he seemed pretty smart. When I would ask him about his future plans, he would shrug and shoot a horrible-looking shot. He told me that he was diagnosed with ADHD and figured out that “school wasn’t for people like me.” I wanted to help him get over that mental barrier and find some career that he could make him happy.

Over the next year and a half, I taught him how to shoot, play defense, run the pick and roll, and play in the post (sorry for the inside basketball, non-sports fans). He ate it up. He got frustrated and cussed me out too. I was so frustrated because he had this strange sense of entitlement and he would take very little responsibility for the losses. I knew at the very least, the lessons were making him feel something. Although the win/loss ratio was lopsided in my favor, he started to eke out wins. I saw his confidence growing and trust building.

Two pivotal moments made it all worth the effort for me. One day we were playing and it was a close game. We would always play to seven points and continue if one person did not win by 2 points. It was an epic game as we were making shot after shot. He beat me. That was not the incredible part. He concentrated and cleared his mind of any doubt about his ability or his perceived inferiority to me and others. I knew from that point on that he would not have to get lessons from me – he would take responsibility to learn more on his own.

Eventually over time, I learned that Mike wanted to become a sports broadcaster. I thought he could do it too. This guy could not shut up about sports. His favorite was basketball, but he had encyclopedic knowledge of players and teams of every sport. I challenged him to read Bill Simmon’s 700 page “Book of Basketball” in a week. I asked him to write 500 words about each 100 pages he read in a blog, every day. I did the same and fell behind. He actually read the book, did the blog entries, and did it on time. I saw his confidence growing and trust building.

The epilogue

Today, Mike is one of the fellows in Duplessy Foundation’s Purpose Fellowship program. The program prepares 18 to 24-year-old artists not enrolled in four-year college that grew in up in Boston for community leadership. He is taking a writing composition course at Roxbury Community College and his first two grades were both an A-. He wants to continue taking classes and is bringing up what were once unfathomable ideas like degrees and graduation. Most importantly, he now knows that he can be a sports broadcaster and he is taking personal responsibility for his success.

Derrick and his mentee, Mike

Writing this story makes me feel like a part of Dr. King’s dream is truly coming to fruition. As you can see in this picture, I am black and Mike is white. A white young man trusting and seeking guidance from a black man in a mentoring relationship is pretty cool. On a personal note, he helped me realize that while I was getting away from thinking about my calling on the basketball court, it was staring me right in the face.

Program highlight: Generations Incorporated

This guest post is courtesy of Michael Hart, volunteer recruitment and training AmeriCorps VISTA at Generations Incorporated. Michael answered some questions from Mass Mentoring regarding his program and its National Mentoring Month events.

1. What is your role at the organization? Please give us some information about your program.

Generations Incorporated first opened its doors in 1991 and in the late 1990s we shifted our focus to youth literacy. At Generations Incorporated, we unite older adults with students in Greater-Boston public schools and after-school programs. Our older adult volunteers act as literacy tutors either in one-on-one settings or in small groups.

I am on the recruitment and training team, and along with my other team members I recruit and train volunteers who are interested in helping improve the literacy rates of students in their communities. Through our trainings and our sites, we give our volunteers the tools and the medium to help improve and shape their communities.

2. Why is mentoring important?

I was very fortunate growing up – I had a lot of great people in my life that helped me figure out where I wanted to eventually end up and what I wanted to be doing. Between teachers, various coaches, and my parents, someone was always there to support me. I know I am certainly not alone. I think when we each really take a minute we can picture a mentor that has stood out to us and has helped each one of us to get where we are going. To me, mentoring is about simply supporting your community members and trying to help them get everything they can out of life.

3. What did your program do to celebrate National Mentoring Month?

Our volunteers meet once a month at the schools or after-school programs to talk about upcoming events or participate in trainings. For National Mentoring Month we decided to have one or two members from our volunteer management team bring coffee, donuts, and fruit to all of our sites during their meetings. The volunteers were gracious enough to allow us to use some of their team meetings to thank them for all they do to help make our program so successful.

4. What was the outcome of the event?

We were very pleased with the outcome – we were able to visit 14 of our 17 sites and speak with more than 170 volunteers.

5. What was the overall response to the event?

The response was overwhelmingly positive. Our volunteers expressed that they did appreciate the coffee and food and really liked having someone from our office coming out to the sites, acknowledging and thanking them for their hard work.

6. Did you do anything else for National Mentoring Month?

Along with using all of our social media outlets to create additional awareness for National Mentoring Month, we sent a mailing to some prospective volunteers who had expressed interest in becoming a mentor with Generations Incorporated.

7. How can people can get in touch with your program for additional information?

If people are interested in learning more about mentoring opportunities with Generations Incorporated they are welcome to contact Mike Hart directly at mhart@generationsinc.org or 617.423.0408. People can also learn more by visiting our website at www.generationsinc.org.

Program highlight: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County

This guest post is courtesy of Emily Cutts, YouthServe Americorps member at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire Co. Emily answered some questions from Mass Mentoring regarding her program and its National Mentoring Month events.

1. What is your role at the organization? Please give us some information about your program.

I am the AmeriCorps member at CHD Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County. I am responsible for outreach and recruitment for our program, as well as working with our Kids to Campus Programs at Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Additionally, I help organize and facilitate events for our Bigs and Littles. Our program works with youth who range from 7 to 14-years-old, and matches them with adult mentors in the community.

2. Why is mentoring important?

Within these relationships, youth are given the ability to develop positively and confidently with the benefit of a friend to lean on. These relationships help them thrive as they become adolescents, and give them opportunities to challenge themselves and become productive members of their community.

3. What did your program do to celebrate National Mentoring Month?

Our program hosted an Annual Volunteer Recognition event on Jan. 31. We asked our volunteers, donors, case managers, and board to come together to help us celebrate the wonderful job our volunteers have done. We asked the District Attorney, David Sullivan; Dr. Marta Guevara, director of achievement and equity for Amherst public schools, and our Board President, Michael Gove, to speak at this event. A local a capella group also performed for the volunteers.

4. What was the outcome of the event?

Our event had about 50 people in attendance, including volunteers, board members, staff, our speakers, and donors.

5. What was the overall response to the event?

We feel our event had a positive and excited response. The volunteers who were able to attend ranged from our Community Bigs to our College Bigs, to Bigs who have been matched 4-5 years, to Bigs who have only recently been matched. It was a blend of all the wonderful mentors who make up our program, and this event allowed them to see the diverse community they are a part of.

6. Did you do anything else for National Mentoring Month?

This was our sole event to celebrate mentors in January, besides the positive feedback we give on an individual basis.

7. How people can get in touch with your program for additional information?

To get more information, please contact me, Emily Cutts (YouthServe Americorps) at (413) 259-3351 or at our email, bbbsvolcorps@chd.org.

Program highlight: AFC Mentoring

This guest post is courtesy of Emily Heaton, Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring at AFC Mentoring. Emily answered some questions from Mass Mentoring regarding her program and its National Mentoring Month events.

1. What is your role at the organization? Please give us some information about your program.


Emily Heaton, from AFC Mentoring

I serve as the recruitment & outreach coordinator at AFC, as well as a Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring. Adoption & Foster Care (AFC) Mentoring is the only mentoring organization in Massachusetts that caters strictly to youth who have experience with foster care. AFC was founded in 2001 and continues to grow. We match youth who have experience with out-of-home care with caring adult mentors. Our average match length for one-to-one relationships is more than two years. We work to provide consistency in the lives of youth who are experiencing transition.
2. Why is mentoring important?

Mentoring at AFC is considered the best practice for reaching an incredibly poignant goal: to provide a consistent adult in the life of a youth in foster care. For many of the youth in our program, a mentor is the only stable relationship they have. Our goal is consistency – we provide stability in the face of chaos and transition. We provide a lasting friendship. We believe mentoring has the power to influence a young person’s life and to act as a preventative measure against the harsh realities for many youth with experience in foster care, including homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration. Working with an especially vulnerable and often overlooked population, mentoring at AFC is not just beneficial—it often provides youth with opportunities they otherwise would not have had, a person on whom they can depend, and a community in which they can participate and feel safe.

3. What did your program do to celebrate National Mentoring Month?

In honor of National Mentoring Month, AFC used its monthly survey (which goes out to mentors to collect valuable match information and data) to ask which three group events mentors would most likely participate in the following month. Mentors returned the survey and voted on an ice skating event. The mentors then received appreciation gift cards, purchased with the help of Mass Mentoring Partnership, to use on future match “dates” with their mentees. This gift card is meant to help offset the cost of regular mentoring activities.

4. What was the response to the event?

I think this event has received a very positive response from mentors. More than half of our mentors returned the survey, and since many of our mentors spend money on match activities, I know the gift cards will prove to be useful and appreciated.

5. Did you do anything else for National Mentoring Month?

AFC participated in Youth Mentoring Day at the State House, and nominated BNY Mellon for the business category of the Ignite Award. AFC Staff participated that day by attending the program and meeting with our local legislators. An AFC match, mentor Justin Pasquariello and mentee Henry spoke at the Youth Mentoring Forum held by MMP. We have also distributed National Mentoring Month materials here at the office—potential mentors have received “Thank Your Mentor” postcards and NMM bookmarks.

6. How people can get in touch with your program for additional information?

Contact Emily Heaton, Emily@afcmentoring.net or 617-224-1302.