The Role of Mentors in Keeping Kids Safe

The child abuse tragedy uncovered at Penn State has been a big focus of attention in the mentoring world.  Aspects of it have been addressed in posts on mentoring blogs, debated in exchanges on mentoring list serves, and served as the topic of many conversations in our office.  While much of the attention from our field focuses on how we safeguard youth from access by predators, I keep coming back to the same question: “Who should have been keeping these kids safe after they were harmed?”

In mentoring, we put much of our efforts into separating out the “wrong” (in intentions, availability or attitude) potential volunteers from the “right” ones.  We take our obligation to shield youth from harm that could come through our programs very seriously and make every attempt to reduce the risks that being involved in mentoring could pose to them, through the relationships that are built or the activities that mentors engage in.  While we try to control as many of the risks that might stem from our programs as possible, we cannot ignore risks that we have no control over – conditions in the rest of a child’s world.

We place mentors in the lives of youth as witnesses to their everyday experiences in homes, schools and communities; as such, mentors may recognize things that no one else does about a child’s struggles or pain.  If we are serious about protecting youth, we need to help mentors understand how to keep children safe, as well as how to avoid harming them, and to realize that their relationships with mentees continue beyond the time they spend together.  With recent events, questions have been raised about the role of volunteers and their obligation to report abuse under Minnesota’s child protection laws.  According to the applicable statute, mandated reporters are those considered “a professional or professional’s delegate” in fields related to care of others (such as medicine, social services, mental health, education).  Isn’t delegating the care of a child what mentoring programs do every day?   

I believe the law provides clear instructions for mentors and mentoring programs.  Programs can’t take on the obligation to report abuse for their mentors.  Aside from legal ramifications, a report of abuse coming from a person who did not directly observe a situation or identify concerns will be less effective in helping those assessing the report determine whether there are grounds for action.  The challenge for mentoring programs is how we help mentors understand their role in protecting children, educate them about ways they may encounter harmful situations in their mentees’ lives, and instruct them about how to respond if they are concerned about a child’s welfare.  We also need to address the emotional side of this issue with mentors – fears that about how a report of abuse might affect a child, concerns about the potential impact on important people in a child’s life, myths about how the child protection system works, and more.  

While “wake-up call” is an over-used term, the furor surrounding the Sandusky scandal serves as a reminder that we must do everything we can to ensure the safety of youth we serve.  Penn State’s response to abuse allegations will be held up for years to come as an example of institutional failure and complicity; how that abuse happened, and continued, will be the subject of a high stakes blame game for just as long.  What we can take from this is the commitment to do better by all youth in the future and hold ourselves and our mentors to the highest standards of care.  How do you prepare your mentors to protect the children they care about?

Red Light, Green Light

Evidence-based practice (EBP) entails making decisions by integrating the best available evidence.  Dr. Renée Spencer and Dr. Jean Rhodes both mentioned EBP during their keynote addresses at last week’s Minnesota Mentoring Conference and EBP is also the topic of our Quality in Action webinar this Wednesday.

Traffic lights were invented with the intent of increasing public safety and managing traffic flow more efficiently.  And with that in mind, lots of them were installed on our roads. Later on, using the best available evidence, criteria were developed regarding traffic signal placement – knowing that in some cases traffic lights did more harm than good.  But even after they have been installed in locations that meet the established guidelines, traffic lights are not 100% effective.  Mechanical failures create traffic backups miles long.  Distracted drivers blow through red lights.  And drivers like me don’t wait for the light to turn green.  

Ok, not all the time.  But sometimes common sense prevails (or the wails of a hungry baby in the backseat) and I just decide to go.  There are no cars around.  No police or red light cameras to catch me.  So I just go.  Is that so bad?  Probably not… But it would be careless if I didn’t come to a complete stop and check for cars in all directions before deciding to proceed.

This is how I think mentoring programs should think about EBP.  When making a decision about how to design or enhance your mentoring program, STOP – take a look at ALL the evidence – then make a responsible decision for your program that ensures safety for everyone involved, especially mentees.  Then, evaluate that decision.   Did it work?  Was it worth the risk?

Most evidence-based practices related to mentoring are based upon studies of 1:1, community-based mentoring models using adults as mentors.   But despite what the existing research said, programs considered the best available evidence (including community needs & resources) and then developed group and peer mentoring models anyway.  They evaluated the effectiveness of those programs and now, with the release of a new meta-analysis of mentoring programs, we have evidence to show that group and cross-age mentoring models work just as well – under the right conditions.

Best practices shouldn’t block innovation, nor should they interfere with common sense.  But does that mean you can completely ignore the evidence?  No way. 

Maybe this is why I’m a fan of the roundabout.

Continue this discussion this Wednesday, Nov. 2, during MPM’s monthly Quality in Action Webinar – Evidence-Based Practice & Mentoring. 

A Reflection: Dr. Peter Benson

Dr. Peter Benson

It almost seems cliché to call Peter Benson, President of Search Institute, a luminary. But it is the image that kept coming to mind upon hearing of his recent death.  Luminaries are people of prominence and brilliant achievement, and Peter certainly fit that definition.  But I think his life expanded the concept of luminary. He shed light on unexplored paths, illuminated solutions to difficult problems, persevered when the path was dim, and threw light on what many of us cannot see or understand.  At Peter’s memorial service yesterday, it was clear that many people viewed him the same way.  References to light, sparks, incandescence, and illumination were present in the speakers, prayers, program and the music.  Peter truly was a unique and bright light.  He always saw clearly all that is good in children and youth and he invited and challenged adults to a play a positive role in young people’s lives.  Peter was able to translate his vision; what was crystal-clear to him, to each and every one of us so we could play a role.  He was inspiring, funny, genuine, humble, innovative and practical.  I heard Peter speak hundreds of times over the past 20 years, and I read many of his books.  I was always captivated and referred to his writings often in presentations, reports and casual conversation.   Darrell Thompson, Executive Director of Bolder Options and Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota board member, also viewed Peter as an unparalleled leader in the field of youth work.  Darrell observed, “Peter was someone many of us respected and looked up to when it came to youth issues in this country.  Peter made Bolder Options and hundreds of other mentoring programs stronger and helped all of us create a community of caring adults.”

 

In his recent book, Parent, Teacher, Mentor, Friend… How Every Adult Can Change Kids Lives Peter quoted the German Theologian, Martin Luther, who observed, “Indeed, for what purpose do we older folks exist, other than to care for, instruct, and bring up the young?”  This is a charge Martin Luther gave not just to parents but, in his words, “to every citizen.”  Peter expanded on this age old concept in admonishing all of us to “think of raising great kids as so much easier when all adults use their natural abilities to name, know, watch out for, cherish, and support young people.”  Peter often noted that young people need multiple caring adults in their lives in order to thrive.  In the youth mentoring world, we fed off of his research and joined Peter in his efforts to spread the word about the critical nature of adult and youth relationships. Peter said, “Families function better when adults rally around kids.  Schools are more successful when they are embedded in a web of community support.  The web is critical and essential.  It highlights the power of the Ethiopian proverb:  When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” 

 

The Reverend Gwin Pratt acknowledged at the memorial service that even Peter’s absence is a presence.  His light, passion, and spark for positive youth development will carry us forward and continue to expand our thinking.  While his physical presence will be missed, he has illuminated a clear path for all of us to follow.

Leader, Mentor, Friend, Visionary

This week, local and national news sources (and many of my Facebook friends’ news feeds) are paying tribute to Steve Jobs and his (in my opinion) absolutely mind-blowing contributions to technology.  His ideas changed how we do business, how we communicate with each other, how we live.

The mentoring field also lost a great innovator this week - Dr. Peter L. Benson, president and CEO of the Search Institute, passed away on Oct. 2 after a year long battle with cancer.  Dr. Benson’s contributions to youth development are (in my opinion) absolutely mind-blowing.  His ideas changed how we do our business, how we communicate with young people, how we see young people – as assets to grow and nurture, rather than problems to eliminate or fix.

In my first year at MPM, at a special board meeting, I had the chance to sit at the same conference table as Dr. Benson.  Twenty years earlier,  I had been a youth representative on a Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth initiative in my hometown.   That initiative, spurred by Dr. Benson’s research and ideas, changed the way teachers, coaches, and mentors in my home community viewed me, and in turn, how I viewed myself. Thanks to the wealth of “asset-builders” around me, I never focused on all the “risk factors” in my life but instead somehow thrived in spite of them.

And I have passed that lesson along – to all the camp counselors, youth workers, and mentors I’ve trained over the years.  And those same counselors, youth workers and mentors have passed it along as well.  It’s this legacy of Dr. Benson’s that will endure long after the iPhone and iPad have been replaced. 

• To learn more about the work on Dr. Benson and the Search Institute, sign up to attend, Thriving: What Do Young People Need to Flourish? at the Minnesota Mentoring Conference
• Discuss the impact of the developmental asset framework on evidence-based practice during next month’s Quality in Action webinar.

In Memoriam: Peter Benson

The following article was written by Youth Today and featured as their latest article 10/4/2011.

Peter Benson, CEO of Search Institute, Dies at 65

October 03, 2011 by John Kelly

Peter Benson, the long-time CEO of the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, died yesterday at the age of 65 after a year-long battle with colon cancer.  Benson had gone on sabbatical last week to deal with his worsening condition.

Benson, who held a Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from the University of Denver, joined the nonprofit as a research scientist in 1978, leaving behind a job as chair of the psychology department at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. He had led the organization since 1985.

“His vision not only for young people but for the people who work with young people and the people who support them was addictive,” said Karen Pittman, CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, a Washington-based youth development organization. 

Under Benson, Search Institute emerged as a major research and assistance entity for programs focusing on making positive youth development the focus of their work.

The Institute is perhaps best known for its promotion of “developmental assets,” a list of 40 assets that programs should strive to instill in youths. Over time, Search developed separate asset lists for four age ranges: 3 to 5, 5 to 9, 8 to 12 and 12 to 18.

In a more recent initiative, simply entitled “Sparks,” Search Institute scientists sought to identify the universe of desires that fueled young people to thrive, the hope being that those “sparks” could serve as the starting point for youth workers seeking to instill developmental assets in children.

“Spark is a life orientation … a way of being present in the world,” Benson told a crowd at a TEDx  event in St. Paul, Minn., last April. “It may touch work, it may be work, it may be outside of work. It’s not the same thing as vocational  planning, it’s about nurturing and naming what is in here .”

“I’m often introduced as the ‘grandmother of youth development,’” said Pittman. “If I’m the grandmother, Peter is the grandfather. I really can’t imagine finishing this journey without him.”

Benson was a columnist for Youth Today from 2005 until 2010.  In his last column for the paper, in August of 2010, he expressed concern over the fragmentation of youth services into silos competing against one another for funding.

“If we were in any other business – say cell phones, bottled water or toilet paper – fighting for market share, brand differentiation and distinct advantage would be the way to go,” Benson wrote. “But when it comes to growing healthy, thriving young people, fragmentation is a recipe for failure.”

Gene Roehlkepartain, the Institute’s director of family strategies, will lead Search Institute as the board of directors decides on a permanent successor for Benson.  The leadership team currently includes CFO Paul Kirst; Tim Showalter-Loch, vice president of strategic partnerships; and Nancy Alliegro, vice president of content development and sales.

Going deeper to understand the newly formed Youthprise organization founded and funded by the McKnight Foundation

A newly formed organization, Youthprise, was created to spark change and galvanize action to boost youth potential. Minnesota kids have nearly 2,000 hours of discretionary time each year. That’s equivalent to a full-time job—and twice the time they spend in school. Are we making the best of this “out of school time” so that it is truly enriching and transformative for all? Too often, the answer is no. And too often, young people are not connected to adults that can help them make the most of their discretionary time. 

Youthprise will build on the work of the McKnight Foundation and Youth Community Connections and bring together resources and people to identify and scale great non formal learning programs and strengthen systems and policy.  Youthprise has set an ambitious vision which is to lead the nation in accelerating leadership and innovation beyond the classroom; ensuring that: 

• Every young person is include and engaged.
• Every family has access.
• Every program has support to ensure quality and impact.
• Every community has a clear plan—for and with youth.

The Mentoring Partnership recently sat down with the new President of Youthprise, Wokie Weah, to learn more about the goals, objectives, and vision for the new organization and how the mentoring field might align and partner together in the future.

Q.  Tell us about yourself and why and how you got into this work?

A.  I am originally from Liberia, West Africa and immigrated with my family to attend high school in Quebec, Canada and college in New York with the intention of becoming a teacher.  I had a vision early on of wanting to work with young people on different paths through a system approach.  My first job was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin doing employment training.  This led me to Atlanta where I had a life changing experience in working with young people who were also marginalized.  My job in Atlanta was to introduce youth to opportunities beyond high school.  These young people lived in the projects in Atlanta but participated in a summer program helping prepare them for college.  I learned how much young people needed longer term support.  There was one young man in particular that stays with me.  This young man lived in the projects, couldn’t read or write and got teased a lot and was very embarrassed by his illiteracy.  This is around the time that computers were just becoming commonly used by the broader public and this young man was gifted in computers.  He became a leader in teaching others how to use computers.  This whole experience changed his view of himself.  He gained tremendous self-confidence.  I witnessed how many young people have gifts that they had never acknowledged and showed me that adults and other youth play a key role in helping uncover and explore these gifts.  When young people know their gifts it positions them to build on successes.  Unfortunately, this young man later got into trouble with the law that highlighted the need for consistent and sustained support for young people.

Being in Atlanta also introduced me to importance of giving back to community.  As a result I felt an obligation to go back to Liberia and serve as a principal at a k-12 school. I loved being back home but two years later my country broke into civil war and I decided to return to the United States.  I ended up in Minnesota because it was close to Milwaukee where I have family and because the job market was good. I was hired at the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) where where I helped shape the organization’s strategic direction, cultivate partnerships, grow the funding base, professional development, annual conference, and special events and develop and manage NYLC’s youth and schools programs called the NYLC Generator School Project focused on interpretation of service in different cultural contexts.  These experiences also allowed me to understand the link between service learning and how young people can participate as leaders in their schools and communities. My time at NYLC also allowed me to take a leave of absence to work for UNICEF back home in Liberia.  This was a very difficult job in the middle of a civil war working on an education project with child soldiers, teen mothers, and with youth in the justice system.  I was moved by this experience in witnessing how hopeful young people were despite great challenges and how willing they were to create solutions and address challenges and yet not take on the “baggage” of adults.  I like being an advocate and activist.  I tried to keep my eyes on what I wanted to accomplish in the long term.  I learned to listen carefully and challenge myself about agreement or disagreement among many perspectives and become clear about what’s important.  There is a strong consistency in my life and belief that young people have a lot to offer.  At this later stage in my life, I am interested in meaning and purpose that aligns with personal values. 

When I first expressed interest in joining Youthprise, it was clear that this new organization would make an investment in young people and leverage resources that can help people that don’t have equal access to opportunities.  Youthprise was committed early on to the richness of diverse communities; such as our immigrant communities.  We need to tap into that knowledge base which will have a ripple affect across the country.  Youthprise leadership wants to position Minnesota to be the leader in nation in accelerating leadership and innovation. 

Q.  What do you hope to accomplish with this new organization?

A.  The Minnesota model will be different in that it will be built on taking perspective into consideration so that young people are perceived as equal partners in all aspects of the work of Youthprise.  Youth leadership and engagement means that we will provide youth with authentic opportunities to lead; particularly in philanthropy and policy.  This will allow us to tap into the creativity of young people.  The interactions between adults and youth will be shifting back and forth…young people being mentored and adults being mentored by youth.

Q.  Can you please share more about your team, board, staff, and youth?

A.  McKnight Foundation did a wonderful job of gathering input from the community about what is important in the out of school time arena.  The Youthprise board is developing a set of operational principles where a broader vision can be implemented.  Obviously the economic climate makes sustainability tough; particularly for small organizations. Youthprise is being very thoughtful about putting the right infrastructure in place and balancing expectations about building systems that will be sustainable.  As staff is being hired and it is our intention to seek strategists, high performing leaders, and those individuals that appreciate young people, and understand how to work across cultures. Youthprise will be ushering in change and so we need people involved that understand the role of a backbone organizations or intermediaries and how Youthprise will serve as a support mechanism to help people come together around a shared vision and is excited about working with young people to think about learning beyond the classroom.

The affiliation with the McKnight Foundation is evolving and opens to change.  McKnight leadership viewed their role as seeding the idea but not ownership moving forward.  McKnight wants Youthprise to have a vision of independence and use resources in purposeful and intentional ways to move the broader field forward.  Change will be a major driver in the agenda of Youthprise and facilitating conversations with stakeholders about what that change will be and look like, how communities can operate to be invested in young people

The out of school field is broad so looking at what happens with young people when they are not in school; particularly middle school, high school and early college years will be of great interest.  In order to do this effectively, multiple stakeholders will participate in our shared work with an emphasis in working with other intermediaries that are working at the community level, have long reach and a focus on quality learning experiences. I know the Mentoring Partnership is focused on building and sustaining quality mentor programs so our collaborative work has great potential. 

Q.  What are the goals of Youthprise?

A.

• Mobilize the power of youth to enliven, expand and transform programs and systems
• Expand access to quality learning experiences that prepare youth for education, work and civic life
• Advance integrated community-based systems that increase opportunities and improve outcomes for all youth
• Leverage and grow resources to close the opportunity gap for under-engaged and under-served youth.
• Ignite public insistence on engaging, accessible, quality learning opportunities for all youth. 

Youthprise looks at goals in integrated way to mobilize the power of youth that can lead to the expansion of access to quality non formal learning experiences. Early on one of things that are clear is that a communication strategy and plan is integral to how Youthprise moves forward.  There is lots of noise and conversations about achievement issues but not enough conversations about what happens when young people are not in school.  We are talking about the same young person and we can’t have artificial silos. As a community we should not define what is learning only by measurement of standardized tests.  We clearly need to teach beyond tests.  Therefore, this is need and value of system building and youth leadership.

Q.  As you know, the McKnight Foundation has been a leader in investing in youth mentoring.  However, as McKnight has refined their giving strategies many mentor programs are wondering what will your relationship be with the McKnight Foundation moving forward?

A.  For more than 15 years, the McKnight Foundation has been a major supporter of the out-of-school time (OST) field in Minnesota.  In early 2010, the foundation’s board decided to explore the feasibility of transferring its Youth OST portfolio to an independent entity (intermediary) to ensure that the Foundation’s impact in the field continues to grow.

We tested the interest and timeliness of such an effort with local knowledge leaders and other successful OST intermediaries around the country; and built an advisory council to help us shape the concept.

In November of 2010 a board of directors was formed, and in March of 2011 the organization received its 501c3 nonprofit status and trademarked the name Youthprise. That same month, the board appointed me to be the organization’s first president. In June of 2011, highly respected Youth Community Connections came under our umbrella, bringing with it a history of wisdom about the field.  Our new website has more information on the history of the organization and our focus moving forward. http://youthprise.org/

I believe that the McKnight Foundation leads with their values and is expressed by how they do business.  Creating and seeding intermediaries was a priority.  You can go back to the founder of the foundation; William McKnight was known for his philanthropic innovation and was an early supporter of young people and the need to be led by a vision vs. hindered by problems.  William McKnight would approve of Youthprise if he were alive today.

Q.  How does mentoring fit into your work? 

A.  As I stated earlier, Youthprise is an organization that is led by values.  Minnesota has one of the largest achievement gaps in the country amongst our children of color when it comes to academic and school success. The field is pretty entrenched and we need to lead people towards new systems that are directed to needs of young people not supporting the systems that aren’t serving the needs of young people.

The second frame of reference I want to use is that to be able to do this work we need to be in relationship with young people.  This sends a message that our youth have value as people and we as adults value what young people think.  This value system cannot be defined by how well youth are or not achieving in school but we also need to look at causes of why they are not successful…  The work of Youthprise needs to be purposeful and intentional so that we are developing leadership.  Clearly, mentoring plays a tremendous role.  Youthprise will be interested in the content of relationships between youth and adults how these relationships are building leadership capacity.  We hope to work in tandem with the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota in expanding the many quality forms of mentoring and are cognizant that if we do a decent a job of mentoring then young person will become a mentors and build on their own experiences.

Q.  Are mentor programs eligible to be partners or request funding?

A.  Youthprise will be advocating, convening, collaborating, and promoting quality out of school time but also investing.  Youthprise is in the process of making decisions about their investment strategy.  By January, 2012 Youthprise will be communicating about this investment strategy and will be looking at partnerships and traditional and non-traditional grant making.  There is much yet to be decided on grant making and investments.  We could safely say that there will be an emphasis on quality, capacity building, and encouraging organizations to think about their own sustainability and innovation.  Youthprise is trying to model new ways of getting work done and demonstrating how individual organizations can accomplish change working in collaboration and partnership with young people. 

If we find ways to share how our collective impact is making a difference then we can also make better and more informed decisions about measuring the impact.  Youthprise is in a position to create data measurement systems and look at ways to support young people across the metro area and leverage those efforts across the state. We will remain flexible about access, sustainability and quality.

Q.  What role can mentoring advocates/programs/champions do to support Youthprise and our shared work?

A.  I need to better understand work of the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota so that Youthprise can mobilize the power of youth and take full advantage of the implication that mentoring will be significant part of our shared work.  There is a wonderful opportunity for young people to voice what is important to them and be surrounded by caring adults

Off the top of my head I would like to explore lessons learned about mentoring that can be shared across the field of youth development, look at program models that are effective, replication and distribution of effective models, and be thoughtful about working with young people in policy reforms.  It seems to me that MPM is one of the organizations working on policy issues for young people.  MPM admitted to struggling with policies that includes capacity building.  There is an intersection with philanthropy and policy and because .mentoring organizations have both research and impact data, they can be an integral player in the out of school time field.

Q.  What else would you like us to know about Youthprise, plans for the future, or if people have additional questions

A.  Youthprise inherited a strong knowledge base from Youth Community Connections and will be committed to building on existing strengths.  Youthprise will be in partnership with people to ensure we all understand what is already working well, studying the root of problems, and moving aggressively forward with making things better for young people.  Youthprise will work on system building and issues that are systemic married with solutions that are sustainable.  This is the shared vision piece; we want to make impact by moving in a collective way forward.  We can’t be focused on turf issues and myopic thinking.  Youthprise is also not going to try to change everything at once.  There are a number of funding streams that could converge both private and public funding that could positively influence our work.  I know funders will continue to focus on quality and creating systems that will positively impact young people for the long term.

Training Idea – Matching Mentors & Mentees

In EEP and other trainings, we often use Exercise 2 from the ”action” section of Research In Action Brief #9 – Youth Mentoring: Do Race and Ethnicity Really Matter?.  The exercise uses an interactive matching game to help mentor program staff think about their criteria for making matches. 

In the first part of the exercise, participants each get a name tag that identifies them as a mentor or mentee, and includes their name, gender and ethnicity.  Then they are asked to walk around the training space, silently, and match themselves using the provided information.  We then discuss how they made their matches, and emphasize that while gender and race are important, what other information would have been helpful?

In the second part of the exercise, participants receive a short profile of the mentor or mentee, to add to the name, gender and ethnicity information they already have.  They can then reconsider their matches, using the new information.

The names, gender/ethnicity info, and profiles are all provided in the Research In Action brief.  However, to do the exercise as described, you need at least 12 participants.  We are facilitating a training this week for a group with just 6 participants so we came up with an adaptation of the exercise.

With the help of my 6 year old daughter, we created these portraits to go along with the names, gender/ethnicity, and ages of mentors and mentees.  On the back of the paper plate portraits, we included an envelope with the extended profile concealed inside.  This way, the smaller group can do part 1 & 2 as a group, using the portraits instead of real people with name tages.

We’ll see how it goes “in action” but I think there’s a chance we will start using these permanently! 

**Want to take it a step further?  For another part of this week’s training, we will assign a Relationship Prototype (see Research In Action Issue #5) to each of the matches that are made.  Then the group will discuss how program coordinators can best support that match.

Post author April Riordan is the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s Director of Training & Community Partnerships.

Resources in the Event of a Government Shutdown

I was hoping this blog would not be necessary, but with each passing day and the legislature and Governor Dayton nowhere near a compromise on how to balance the state budget, I thought I’d share some great resources in case your organization will be affected by a government shutdown. 

The governor and legislature still have a little over three weeks to get the job done, but if they cannot reach a budget deal by July 1, the start of the 2012 fiscal year, nonprofits that are recipients of government grants or provide services through state resources will be impacted. 

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) created a central resource webpage, 2011 Nonprofit Budget/Shutdown Crisis, to provide updates on the latest developments and provide valuable resources, including a series of five free Government Shutdown Emergency Briefings that will take place around the state.  The briefings, sponsored by MCN and the Nonprofit Assistance Fund, will cover the context for the shutdown, crisis communications techniques, financial planning and how organizations can access emergency bridge loans, and open discussion.

• Wednesday, June 15, St. Paul
• Wednesday, June 15, St.Cloud
• Monday, June 20, Webinar
• Wednesday, June 22, Mankato
• Monday, June 27, St. Paul
• Wednesday, June 29, Duluth

If your mentoring program will be affected by the government shutdown, please let us know what impact it will have on your organization and programs: mai-anh@mpmn.org. 

By law, it’s the job of our elected officials to balance the state budget, and I’m still hopeful that they will spare our state the cost to shut down the government and do what’s best for the people in Minnesota.

Post author Mai-Anh Kapanke is the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s Associate Director and oversees the Public Policy and Marketing departments.

Here’s A Great Mentoring Story to Start Your Week!

Here’s the story about a Kids N’ Kinship mentor from Apple Valley who gives back through his talents as reported by Lindsey Seavert from WCCO on June 4, 2011.

Apple Valley Man Fixes 85 Bikes To Help Kids

The nice weather was on the side of an Apple Valley man Saturday in that it helped him bring a little sunshine to many kids in his neighborhood.

Rick Anderson held an annual bike sale Saturday benefiting Dakota County’s Kids’ n Kinship program.

“I collect and get donated bicycles that I fix and clean-up and refurbish and polish,” Anderson said. “I get a kick of fixing up something that is old, been hanging in someone’s garage and bringing it back to life.”

However, there’s another reason why he spends all year fixing bikes in his garage. It’s a matter close to his heart.

Anderson started fixing Schwinn bikes back when he was 8 years old, an escape from a time in his life that wasn’t so carefree.

“I grew up in a pretty tough household as a kid,” Anderson said. He believes mentors made a difference in his life when he was child.

Thus, he became a mentor through the Kids ‘n Kinship program and discovered the kids he worked with didn’t have bikes of their own.

“This program gives me a chance to give something back and make a future for a kid that doesn’t have a good start,” Anderson said.

He fixed up 85 bikes this year and has about the same amount in the works for future projects.

Last year, he raised $6,000 for kids in need, and he hopes the bikes for sale this year raise the same amount.

The Mentoring Community Unites to Help Victims of the North Minneapolis Tornado

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the clean-up efforts in North Minneapolis. On my drive from our office downtown over to Urban Homework’s volunteer central on Emerson and Broadway, I didn’t see any damage. After turning in my waivers and getting a safety debriefing, I boarded a bus and was sent over to Penn and Golden Valley Road, at which point I could finally see that we had our work cut out for us. I know clean-up crews had been working around the clock since Sunday, but the neighborhood was still in shambles. There was one house we passed where a giant oak was uprooted (the roots literally tore up the road) and had crashed into a duplex. All of us volunteers were amazed by the destruction and started whipping out our camera phones for photos when a mother with her four-year-old son came walking up and said, “I should really be charging people for taking pictures of my home.” I was reminded that aside from picking up the physical destruction, there is a lot of work to be done to help raise up the families affected by the disaster.

At MPM’s Metro Mentor Network gathering last week, a group of mentoring professionals discussed how we can respond to this tragedy. Several of the programs serve North Minneapolis youth who were directly affected by the tornado. For these programs, getting in contact with these youth and determining their needs was the top priority. Bolder Options provided us with a list of things needed by their youth, and FreeArts staff talked extensively about the healing power of art and how they are coordinating an art supply drive to give youth in North Minneapolis a way to express their feelings and to give them hope.

The energy from the programs in the room and the desire to help was inspiring. Several programs, including those who do not serve youth in North Minneapolis, were thinking about ways to engage their youth to help. Some ideas included coordinating supply drives and having mentor-mentee matches volunteer together in the clean-up efforts. We realize that right now there is an outpouring of support for this community, but the rebuilding efforts will need to continue for months and even years to come. We don’t want to forget about what happened, so in late June or early July we are hoping to coordinate a follow-up meeting with mentoring programs to see what needs still exist at that point.

What has your program done to serve North Minneapolis? We would love to hear what you’ve done, either in the comments here or on our Facebook page. Also, if you hear of upcoming service opportunities that are open to youth, we would be honored to repost them.

Thanks for all you have done to help so far!  Here a few more resources:

• North Minneapolis Recovery Fund with Dollar-for-Dollar Match up to $300,000
• North Side Volunteer Clean-Up Day June 4
• HandsOn Twin Cities Disaster Relief Portal
• Tornado Relief Webpage from the U of M’s Urban Research Outreach/Engagement Center (UROC)
• Community Resource List from Pillsbury United Communities
• Real-Time Relief Effort Updates from the City of Minneapolis
• Hennepin County Storm Response Webpage
• Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to North Minneapolis tornado relief efforts via the American Red Cross Twin Cities Area Chapter.

Post author Courtney Erickson is the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s 2010-2011 True North AmeriCorps Member.