Mass Mentoring Counts case study: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County

Mass Mentoring Counts (MMC) is a biennial statewide youth mentoring survey in Massachusetts,  conducted for MMP by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, which reveals mentoring trends, gaps and program practices. In preparation for this week’s release of the 2012 MMC survey to programs, we asked some programs to share how past MMC surveys have been helpful. Today’s guest post is from Rebel McKinley, director of development at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County.

Mass Mentoring Counts is an incredible, current resource for mentoring programs. I do not send out a proposal or an email to our senators or representatives without using MMC for context and legitimacy.

I have found that MMC allows me to:

1. Understand the mentoring landscape as a whole in Massachusetts and share that knowledge with constituents
2. See what is happening locally in order to articulate a niche or research potential partners
3. Have a recent and credible source to cite in grant proposals

One of my challenges as a grant writer is helping reviewers understand what is unique about an agency that is part of a national network. I need to make my case compelling for regional funders, and it helps that I am able to demonstrate my knowledge of mentoring in not only Massachusetts, but specifically Western Mass. and Springfield as a result of MMC.

Mass Mentoring Counts case study: Strong Women, Strong Girls

Mass Mentoring Counts (MMC) is a biennial statewide youth mentoring survey in Massachusetts,  conducted for MMP by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, which reveals mentoring trends, gaps and program practices. In preparation for the release of the 2012 MMC survey to programs, we asked some programs to share how past MMC surveys have been helpful. Today’s guest post is from Amy Howard, executive director at Strong Women Strong Girls in Boston.

Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) is a national nonprofit organization currently operating programs in three cities that range drastically in size, culture, and resources. As the local executive director for SWSG Boston, I am always on the lookout for research on mentoring that is specific to the communities we serve. SWSG engages college women as mentors to 3^rd-5^th grade girls at 55 school and community-based sites throughout Greater Boston.

Understanding the other services available at these sites and throughout the 12  neighborhoods we currently serve can be daunting, but tools like Mass Mentoring Counts help to do just that. In just a few short months at SWSG, I have used Mass Mentoring Counts to survey the landscape of mentoring at our current and prospective sites, brainstorm ideas for collaboration, and make the case for an increased investment of time and money in certain areas of our city.

Like many mentoring programs in the area, SWSG raises the majority of our private funds from Boston-based funders who want to better understand the climate of mentoring and girl-serving programs throughout the city, including how different programs coordinate their services to better meet the needs of youth. Having access to up-to-date, region-specific research is critical to my ability to make the case for SWSG and its expansion with regional funders. Most recently, I referred to Mass Mentoring Counts to highlight the critical importance of adding new program sites in the under-served areas of Dorchester and Mattapan to a local funder.

As a leader of a mentoring program dedicated to empowering women and girls, I have a responsibility to understand the full landscape of mentoring programs in Boston and across the Commonwealth. I also have a duty to collaborate with other programs to coordinate services. Comprehensive research like Mass Mentoring Counts helps me, it helps my colleagues, and most importantly, it helps all of us to better serve young people.

How Mass Mentoring Counts can benefit your program

Mass Mentoring Counts (MMC) is a biennial statewide youth mentoring survey in Massachusetts,  conducted for MMP by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, which reveals mentoring trends, gaps and program practices. In preparation for the release of the 2012 MMC survey to programs, we asked some programs to share how past MMC surveys have been helpful. Today’s guest post is from Wendy Foster, President & CEO at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay (BBBSMB).

Mass Mentoring Counts has been an invaluable source of information for our agency, helping us to “build our case” for funding and as a planning tool.

In 2010, BBBSMB engaged in a strategic planning process and took a fresh look at our entire program of service. Mass Mentoring Counts helped us to better understand how mentoring was impacting children in our service area – how many children were being mentored, what kind of mentoring services they were receiving, and where these programs were located. This information enabled us to identify opportunities to increase our impact and serve more children in communities with unmet youth development needs.

Our current five-year plan relies heavily on information gained from Mass Mentoring Counts, in combination with reports from other key sources (like the US Census), and our own internal data.

It’s now almost impossible to imagine what our funding proposals might look like without the influence of Mass Mentoring Counts. We cite countless statistics from the report – youth demographics, the proportion of boys versus girls being served, the number of children engaged in one-to-one mentoring friendships, and many more. Mass Mentoring Counts gives us the “big picture” and also helps us to communicate the subtle nuances of our service area.

Protecting youth

Youth safety has been a hot topic in light of the horrific abuse at Penn State. For mentoring programs, youth safety is always a priority with pre-match screening, background checks and ongoing match monitoring and support.

Mass Mentoring Partnership conducts a Screening for Effectiveness and Youth Safety training in support of programs working towards high operational standards. Our curriculum is based on the Elements of Effective Practice and the comprehensive work led by Program Director Sarah Kremer of the Friends for Youth, Inc. in California.

A Board Certified art therapist, she received her master’s in art therapy from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked with adolescents in mental health, probation, school, and mentoring programs. She authored the Mentoring Journal (2007), published by Friends for Youth. As director of the Mentoring Institute and training consultant for CARS Mentoring, the National Mentoring Center, and MENTOR, she draws upon her knowledge of adolescent development, volunteer management and screening, therapeutic treatment, art-based directives, evaluation, research, and mentoring to provide interactive workshops on best practices for youth mentoring.

Sarah, as our guest blogger, offers excellent recommendations and procedures for programs that want to strengthen or revamp their prevention tactics.

Sarah Kremer, program director of Friends for Youth, Inc.

In response to the latest media reports regarding the child sex-abuse scandal involving Penn State’s former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, Friends for Youth, Inc. would like to express our sorrow about the young men victimized and our disappointment at another preventable tragedy. Sandusky, charged with molesting eight boys over 15 years, with some of the alleged abuse taking place at the Penn State football complex, is now under scrutiny for years of child sexual abuse about which others knew but either did nothing or were not heard.

As a recognized leader in the field of mentoring we are unfortunately not surprised by these horrific events. The very nature of our business demands that we match volunteers with children, much like the Second Mile program. Vulnerable youth are encouraged to establish trust and break down natural barriers of caution creating the perfect opportunity for sexual abuse such as exactly what occurred with Mr. Sandusky.

Because there are those who look to exploit and victimize children under the auspices of a volunteer role, Friends for Youth developed, implemented, and promotes best practices, tools, and information to inform and educate any youth-serving organization about the potential for child abuse. In 2006, we gathered together this information and published a resource SAFE (Screening Applicants For Effectiveness); Guidelines for Preventing Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations (www.friendsforyouth.org/SAFE.html), a comprehensive guide to volunteer screening. I have been leading workshops around the country and webinars since then. Screening volunteers is an essential first step, but, as many of you know, not the only step and not always completely reliable for predicting future behavior. Mentee and parent/guardian training about child sexual abuse and close, consistent ongoing monitoring that includes mentees and parents/guardians also round out the necessary steps.

As the authors of an upcoming chapter focused on Mentor Screening and Youth Safety in the 2nd edition of the Handbook on Youth Mentoring, we looked for any research about screening and monitoring and found almost nothing. There are no mandated standards and the laws for procuring information vary state to state. Data can be unreliable, too, and, most importantly, most offenders have never been in the system, i.e., convicted, arrested, investigate, or accused. We recommend a number of tools and processes, based on research from allied fields and practitioner knowledge, in the chapter for programs to follow in order to ensure that they are doing everything possible to keep their youth safe and matched also with effective mentors.

Next to understanding research about this population (and knowing how to break a culture of silence) and staff using their Informed Intuition as explained in detail in our resource SAFE, one of the tools that is research-based is The Diana Screen. This online tool helps to increase a program’s risk management strategy and is based on years of research on convicted child sexual abusers. This tool is highly recommended for all youth-serving programs and can be used for employees. If you’re interested in more about The Diana Screen, you can view the slides from our April 2011 webinar about this tool here: http://www.slideshare.net/sarahmentoring/the-diana-screen-an-effective-screening-tool-79289

Unfortunately, child sexual abuse is an uncomfortable topic, especially in the male-dominated sports world. In our 32 years of serving at-risk youth, we have seen reports of this situation all too often: child sexual abusers offend multiple times and get away with it, even when someone knew about the abuse.

Friends for Youth is saddened by the alleged initial abuse perpetrated on at least eight boys by Sandusky and even more disappointed by the second offense, the culture of silence surrounding and protecting him. Many times in situations with child sexual abusers, people may notice something “off” or something “not right” but will then discount what they see and hear, especially when it involves those who are in positions of leadership. Our SAFE <http://www.friendsforyouth.org/SAFE.html> publication offers ways to prevent exactly this.

The primary duty of youth service providers is to care for the well-being, healthy development, and growth of children. It is vital that we are informed and educated on the inherent risks in the relationships we create. More information about SAFE <http://www.friendsforyouth.org/SAFE.html> and how Friends for Youth can help build awareness of this tragic issue in communities and youth-serving groups can be found on our website <http://www.friendsforyouth.org/>.

We’ll be leading a workshop about our research on safe practices at MENTOR’s summit in January and will also be featuring the material during our January webinar. Be sure to check out our webinar page frequently for sign-up information here: <http://www.friendsforyouth.org/Webinars.html>

Promoting goal management skills through mentoring programs

The 2011 Northeast Regional Mentoring Conference, Oct. 13-14 in Framingham, MA, will bring together more than 250 practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders in the mentoring field. The conference’s numerous workshops, covering various themes, will ultimately connect the outcomes and power of mentoring.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting the conference with previews to some of the workshops. This post is courtesy of Mimi Arbeit, Ph.D. student at Tufts. She is a part of a team of researchers at Tufts, led by Dr. Edmond Bowers, that have developed a goal management system called Project GPS, which will be presented by Dr. Bowers at the conference.

Every day, youth in mentoring programs are setting goals, working to reach those goals, and regrouping in the face of challenges. Whether it’s earning an A in biology, making the marching band, applying to colleges, or learning how to cook something other than grilled cheese, talking about goals is an important part of any mentoring relationship.

Research from around the world has indicated that youth with strong goals and strong goal-directed behaviors exhibit the most positive development and the least negative outcomes. However, there are not many research-based tools out there to help mentors build and measure these critical life skills in young people.

Over the past two years, Dr. Ed Bowers has directed our team of researchers at Tufts University in working to fill that gap. We designed a set of tools that make talking about – and eventually achieving – goals through a mentoring relationship easier, more fun, and more effective in promoting youth’s positive development. We call this system Project GPS, and we’ve based it on the most cutting-edge research on youth development as well as feedback from youth-serving professionals from around the country.

Project GPS includes a comprehensive series of quick and easy measurement tools, known as rubrics. There are also nearly 30 fun activities, inspirational videos of young people talking about goal achievement, and much more.

Project GPS "road map" visual

We will be presenting Project GPS at our workshop at the Northeast Regional Mentoring Conference. Our workshop will add to the knowledge of the mentoring field by teaching participants about the structure and function of goal-management skills in youth, introducing tools for teaching and practicing goal-management skills through a mentoring relationship, and explaining how these tools can be used to measure and maximize the impact of mentoring programs on the development of goal-management skills and youth.

Our session will introduce these tools using interactive activities and we will discuss different options for implementing these tools in a variety of mentoring contexts.

To find out more about Project GPS and how you can promote goal management skills in the youth in your program, email Mimi Arbeit at tuftsgps@gmail.com or come to our workshop at the Northeast Regional Mentoring Conference.

Project GPS is a project of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, directed by Dr. Richard Lerner.