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Link to Learning: Benefits of Mentoring for Adolescents
As teens plan for their summer experiences of camp, work, or sports, many will interact with adults as summer counselors, managers, or coaches.
This New York Times article
highlights the potential for these mentor/mentee relationships to have a significant positive impact. From the perspective of mentors and researchers, learn more about attitudes and approaches to encourage teens to "
move further along in figuring out what they are good at, what they love, and what they want to do."
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Virginia Mentoring Partnership
4900 Augusta Ave, Suite 140
Richmond, VA 23230
804-828-1536
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Last Call to Apply for Free Technical Assistance through the National Mentoring Resource Center
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 Want to improve the quality of specific aspects of your program? Our one-on-one program consultation, or "technical assistance," provides guidance and resources for program staff on topics of their choice, ranging from establishing a recruitment plan to developing a full policies and procedures manual. VMP encourages all programs to take advantage of this
free resource before the grant cycle closes in October.
"As a mentor coordinator who was launching a new pilot mentoring program, I needed much guidance, and VMP willingly offered me so many valuable resources. The extensive support I received from VMP gave me all the confidence I needed to get my program off the ground. I could not be more grateful for their commitment and service!"
To ensure your program has access to this free resource for the current grant year, submit your request for technical assistance no later than July 31st.
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New Mentor Training Sessions
 As your program plans for the academic year, make sure your mentors are well-trained and prepared for their relationships. VMP's New Mentor Training
covers relationship building, communication techniques, boundary setting, and positive youth development.
Summer is the perfect time to plan training sessions for the beginning of the academic year.
Click here to access VMP's training request form to begin scheduling a private training session for your program's mentors.
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VMP Board Transitions
At VMP's June Board of Directors meeting, we recognized several board members who were rolling off and welcomed four new members to the VMP family.
Our Board members provide guidance and oversight to our organization, and are champions of mentoring and of the services the VMP provides. We are grateful for the six years of service that
Ivan Feldman (Altria Group) dedicated to VMP, including a term as Treasurer. We also thank
Christian Markow (Joe Smith Brand Consultancy/Padilla) for his time on the board.
We are excited to introduce four new board members who bring a variety of talents to the VMP board, including organizational strategy, finance, marketing and volunteer recruitment:
Bill Bales, Horace Mann
Heather Newman, Altria
Britt Parrack, Capital One
Morris Starks, Mentor, Community volunteer
We look forward to working together to serve mentors, mentoring programs and young people around Virginia!
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Summer Programming Update
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In June, VMP officially launched two programmatic initiatives: an evaluation cohort and the implementation of our new quality improvement process, the National Quality Mentoring System.
Program Evaluation Service Launched
 VMP is excited to support youth mentoring programs with a comprehensive and cost effective evaluation that will measure match quality and outcomes. In VMP's recent State of Mentoring Survey, feedback data provided by mentoring program staff indicates a great area of need or challenge is how to evaluate match quality and outcomes. VMP has partnered with
John Harris, Ed.M., and founder of Applied Research Consulting
to lead a cohort of three mentoring programs through a year long evaluation process to evaluate program processes, match quality, and youth outcomes. Programs will begin interviews and data collection this summer.
Quality Based Mentoring (QBM) transitioning to The National Quality Mentoring System
Three additional programs are participating in the roll-out of the National Quality Mentoring System, a new iteration of VMP's quality assessment process (formerly QBM). The goal of the National Quality Mentoring System (NQMS) is to provide mentoring programs with a system for assessing themselves against National Quality Mentoring Standards based on the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, as well as opportunities to receive a quality designation and training and technical assistance to support improvements in quality. To learn more about participating in NQMS, contact Betsy Bilharz, Assistant Director of Program Services.
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Upcoming Staff Development Opportunity: Recruitment Training Session
In VMP's annual State of Mentoring Survey, Virginia mentoring programs reported recruitment as a common challenge. Join VMP on Tuesday, August 8th 10-1pm for a staff training on the topic of recruitment. Register here.
Participating in this training will help program staff:
- Develop a recruitment plan to meet your program's mentor recruitment goals
- Learn successful recruitment strategies
- Apply the recruitment standard from Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring (4th edition) to program practices
This session is offered as part of VMP's Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring Series, which will offer training and resources to mentoring program staff on all six of the research-based standards:
- Recruitment
- Screening
- Training
- Matching and Initiating
- Match Support
- Closure
Stay tuned for additional dates in this series.
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Virginia Mentoring Partnership is a 501 (c) 3 organization that is supported by grants, corporate donations, individual donations and in-kind services. For more information or to support our organization please visit us at www.vamentoring.org |
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