Starting and Maintaining a Mentoring Program

Dr. Susan Weinberger, an author and internationally recognized consultant on school-based mentoring, was the keynote speaker and mentoring track presenter at the 2006 Fall Forum. Select the links below to access the materials she provided during her sessions.

Luncheon Presentation (PDF, 51k)

Mentoring 101 (PDF, 55k)

Recruiting Volunteers and Marketing Your Mentoring Program (PDF, 37k)

Sustaining Your Mentoring Program (PDF, 43k)

An important component of the David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative is to encourage the creation of new school-based mentoring programs in communities across the state. These may be administered by public school foundations, churches, businesses, or other community groups or coalitions.

This section of our web site provides links to tools and resources necessary to help your organization create and maintain a safe and effective mentoring program.

If you have suggestions or need more information, please call (405) 236-0006.

Dr. Susan Weinberger, founder and president of the Mentor Consulting Group, shares these 16 Steps to Effective Youth Mentoring.

The National Mentoring Center offers a start-up toolkit for creating a safe and effective mentoring program, sample forms, a mentoring listserv, lending library, training resources and more.

MENTOR/The National Mentoring Partnership offers a wealth of resources for starting a mentoring program, including Elements of Effective Practice and a downloadable Elements of Effective Practice Toolkit with more than 160 easy-to-use tools to help you start a quality mentoring program. You can join this national organization to receive valuable mentoring tools and information.

The Maine Mentoring Partnership provides a variety of forms that can be adapted for use by other mentoring programs.

Working With Mentors provides current resources for the mentoring field. Includes resources on recruitment strategies, screening, training and matching.
PALS is a mentoring program that matches high school agriculture students with elementary youngsters who have special needs. Developed by the National FFA Organization, the program helps those involved to build trust in others and develop positive self-esteem, both of which are critically lacking in many of today's challenged young people. The program includes a free CD-Rom with all the tools you need to start a program in your area.

In partnership with the FBI, the National Mentoring Partnership makes nationwide FBI fingerprint-based background checks available to any mentoring program in the country. Through SafetyNET, each FBI background check costs $18, and results are delivered within 3-5 business days.

Visit the Oklahoma Mentor Blog for information about background checks.

For tips on how to energize and retain volunteer mentors, visit the National Mentoring Partnership.

MENTOR /The National Mentoring Partnership also offers information on how and where to apply for mentoring grants and funding.
EMT Associates, a small business meeting the evaluation, management, and training needs of public and non-profit organizations nationwide, provides access to mentoring publications including Best Practices for Mentoring Programs, Designing An Effective Training Program For Your Mentors and several others.

These mentoring resources are provided as a service of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, and links to other mentoring programs and resources do not necessarily represent the policies and positions of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.