Innovative Matching Strategies

Collaboration of Education Northwest/National

Mentoring Center, Friends for Youth, Mentoring

Partnership of Minnesota, and Oregon Mentors

March 2012

Good to Know…

1

All attendees will receive an email after the webinar

that will include:

Link to presentation slides

Link to an online recording of webinar

Resources

Contact information

Please help us by taking the time to complete a

short 5-question survey as you exit the webinar.

2012 Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series

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Sarah Kremer

Program Director

Friends for Youth’s Mentoring

Institute

April Riordan

Director of Training & Partnerships

Mentoring Partnership of

Minnesota

Celeste Janssen

Program Director

Oregon Mentors

o Research

o Practice

o Innovation

Date: Third Thursday of every month.

Time: 10-11:15am Pacific/11am-

12:15pm Mountain/12-1:15 pm

Central/1-2:15pm Easter

Cost: Free

Participate in Today’s Webinar

• All attendees muted for best

sound

• Type questions and

comments in the question

box

• We may invite you to “raise

your hand” during interactive

activities

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Rethinking the Role of the Relationship in Youth Mentoring

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1.Do all mentoring matches =

mentoring relationships?

2.What % of your matches are

relationships?

3. If the relationship is the “heart”

of mentoring, what does that mean

for matches that aren’t very strong?

4. Is the only “prize” a long, strong

match?

Podcast: Interview with Dr. Tim Cavell

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A new definition of youth mentoring?

Proposed, working definition:

Youth mentoring is the practice of

using program-sponsored

relationships as a context for

providing youth with prevention-

focused activities and

experiences.

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The experience CAN be a long, strong relationship…

But it can also be short-term and focused.

Tim Cavell, Ph.D.

Lunch Buddy Mentoring

• Stand alone, school-based mentoring

• Designed to restrict the quality of the

mentoring relationship

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• Limited training

• No supervision (monitoring only)

• Mentoring during school lunch time

only

• Seated with other lunch mates

• A different mentor each semester

Match vs. Relationship

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Consider, also, the recent meta-analysis by DuBois et al. (2011)

• No effects for match duration

• No effects for meeting match length

expectations

• No effects for match quality

• Average duration of 6 exemplary

mentoring programs cited was < 9

months! (range was 4 to 12 months)

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Table 2. Study-Level Variables (Moderators) Associated With Differences in Effect Size.

DuBois D L et al. Psychological Science in the Public

Interest 2011;12:57-91

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

“Stronger program effects were found to be associated with the matching of youth and

mentor’s based on similarity of interests.”

11 EEP3

EEP Standards

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Gathering Matching Information

• Mentor application

• Screening – Interviews,

references

• Interest inventories

• Observations

• Motivations

• Input from parents, school

staff, and other providers

• Establishing personal

relationships

iMentor

Ellen Mahoney's ten years of work in

adolescent education has been driven by

the belief that all children can succeed with

the right community support and equal

access to opportunities. Ellen has enjoyed

8 years of volunteer experience as a

mentor and tutor for The Lab School of

Washington, The Latin American Youth

Center in DC, and Girls, Inc in Oregon.

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ELLEN MAHONEY

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM

QUALITY

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Improving mentoring success through a research-based matching strategy

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Currently agency-level staff workers match mentors

to youth through a process that varies from agency

to agency and is largely unknown to the researcher.

Potentially, we could use mentor and mentee

characteristics known at the time of match to

optimize the process.

This could allow agencies to be scientific about

what makes for best matching practices and impose

these practices uniformly across offices.

Rhodes (UMass) and Featherstone (Harvard

Business School) are working with programs to

develop more effective matching strategies

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Friends of the Children

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Joe started out at Friends of the

Children 10 years ago as a paid,

professional mentor (Friend) to 8

boys. He believes deeply that

mentoring relationships have the

power to transform a young

person’s life, especially those who

have many socio-economic

obstacles to overcome.

Joe Bergen

Program Director

Youth Transition Placement Process

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Meet-n-Greet

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Although the “magic” of

a natural connection is

viewed as the primary

matching tool, this

should nevertheless be

secondary to findings

from research…

Friends for Youth

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Matching supported by

In-depth application process • Mentors interviewed extensively,

including experiences

• Mentees interviewed alone

• Parents/caregivers interviewed

about “preferences”

• Referral agent gives input on

strengths, needs, challenges at

beginning

Friends for Youth

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Matching supported by

Pre-Match Training • Includes use of profiles of actual

mentees (already matched) and

questions to answer about both

mentor and mentee strengths and

challenges, as well as possible

activities

• Also includes 12+ scenarios relating

to actual common situations

Friends for Youth

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Matching supported by

Match meetings • After final decision of acceptance, program

staff discusses possible matches (minimum

1 hour length)

• Consider preferences (age, gender, ethnic

background, religion, geographic location,

interests) and personalities

• Review experiences to look for similarities

OR situations to avoid

On the other hand, our old ways

were once new, weren't they?...

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Waiting list…? A match!

Before we go…

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All attendees will receive an email after the webinar

that will include:

Link to presentation slides

Link to an online recording of webinar

Resources

Contact information

Please help us by taking the time to complete a

short 5-question survey as you exit the webinar.

Future Webinars

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April 19- Youth Engagement in

Mentoring Programs

In honor of Global Youth Service Day, learn

how mentoring programs are engaging

mentees in leadership roles and

encouraging matches to serve together.

Amanda Larson from the National Youth

Leadership Council (NYLC) will join us

along with other panelists to talk about the

importance and impact of honoring youth

voice in our programs and in our matches.

Thank you! Collaboration of Education Northwest/National

Mentoring Center, Friends for Youth, Mentoring

Partnership of Minnesota, and Oregon Mentors

Michael Garringer, michael.garringer@educationnorthwest.org Celeste Janssen, celeste@oregonmentors.org

Sarah Kremer, sarah@friendsforyouth.org April Riordan, april@mpmn.org