Youth Wise 2442 NW Market St, #402 Seattle, WA 98107
939.545.6217 info@youthwise.org
Youth Wise Mentoring Questions
What is a Youth Wise Mentor committing to?
- Commit to a one year mentoring friendship with a Mentee
- Meet together once a week (for about 1-3 hours)
- Have fun building a trusting relationship through activities that build friendship
- Get to know your Mentee's life: interests, activities, family, school, gifts and talents, dreams, etc.
- Communicate regularly, act with kindness, and be careful with promises
- Be a role model in your living and decision making
- No, as a Mentor you will have a mentoring Coach who will meet with you once a month to give you support and guidance
- Also, you will have Training meetings once a month with the Mentors in your mentoring team for education and to learn from each other
- Your Coach will be in regular communication with you and will lead the monthly mentoring team Training meetings
- Your Coach will be in communication with the Mentee and family on a monthly basis
- Your Coach will be available for any questions, concerns, or help that may be needed
- The world view held by kids and their parents may be different than your own
- Life in a fatherless, unstable, or impoverished home can bring many difficulties
- You will not be a parent to this youth, you are not their disciplinarian, you are their friend
- You will not be a mentor to the parent
- There is little to no financial cost to you; we may provide certain activity opportunities and tickets
- Youth Wise is a faith-based organization that requires Mentors to sign our Faith and Conduct Policy (but not our Mentees) and pass our screening and training process, which includes an orientation, written application, three references, personal interview, nationwide background check, abuse prevention training, vehicle safety training, and best-practices youth mentoring training.
- There is no faith requirement for a youth to become a Youth Wise Mentee. Children and youth from all backgrounds and world views are welcome in our program.
- No, Youth Wise Mentoring does not train or implore its Mentors to share their faith
- Youth Wise Mentoring's policy on the free speech of its Mentors is similar to that of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which is, discussions of faith are not banned. However, the focus of our Mentors is to be a friend and a role model to their Mentee and not to push their faith on their them.
- If a prospective Mentee and parent state in their application that they would like to have faith in Christ be part of the Mentoring experience then that would be factored into the Mentor and Mentee matching process
- When Youth Wise Mentoring is adopted by an Alliance church or organization, if the church or organization uses Youth Wise Mentoring as an "outreach" tool in their community, then the above statements should be followed. If Youth Wise Mentoring is used as an "inreach" tool for people involved in the church or organization's programs, and faith oriented discussions are already part of the church's or organization's programs, then discussions of faith would be seen as a natural part of the Mentor and Mentee relationship.
