Volunteer Mentoring Guide (Laura Neal 09-10)

Member Name: Laura Neal

Service Site: Boston Urban Youth Foundation

Site Location: Boston, MA

Project Description:

Laura Neal developed this Mentor Guide as a resource for future volunteers at any urban youth center.  In her PowerPoint presentation, she identifies key information for mentors to understand, such as the context of their students, what obstacles students face, how a mentor's own background might affect students, and practical dos and don'ts for mentors.  In the attached Word document, she outlines each of these issues in detail and provides possible solutions for common problems that mentors face.

Topics covered in both the PowerPoint and Word documents include the poverty of entanglement and broken relationships, marred identity, how to get parents involved and avoid creating dependency on the mentor, the twelve "P"s of mentoring, and many references for future reading.