Mentoring

If you are reading this, I am certain that you did not become the person you are today without the help, motivation, influence or guidance from others. Mentoring has evolved over the past decade from a practice that was associated with giving back to others in a philanthropic way to becoming a cornerstone for establishing success; not only with young people, but for those who are looking to advance their careers at any age. Although the essence of mentoring is an innate desire to share what you have learned with someone else less experienced, mentoring in the form of a program or structure requires the implementation of best practices. Go to Ms. Sams has developed workshops that lay the foundation for a mentoring program that will help to organize your organization’s efforts and maximize impact.

Mentor / Mentee Training

Mentoring is a shared experience of giving and receiving. Go to Ms. Sams customizes training workshops for mentors and mentees designed to highlight the characteristics needed for thriving and productive mentoring relationships.

Mentoring Youth with Challenges

Every 21 seconds, a young person is arrested in the United States. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, “Children born into neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, with unmet health and mental health needs, who have been victims of violence, or who have spent time in foster care are at increased risk of interacting with the juvenile justice system.” Due to the fact that many of these youth lack caring and responsible adults in their lives, mentoring is an effective form of intervention. Young people who have mentors in their lives for at least a year are 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to start drinking, 52% less likely to skip a day of school, and 37% less likely to skip a class. Go to Ms. Sams works closely with organizations to look at the challenges their mentees experience and customize a mentoring program that will result in positive outcomes.

Best Practices and Operations

When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. While mentoring relationships can produce positive developmental and organizational outcomes, both mentoring programs and mentoring relationships sometimes fail due to a variety of operational failures (e.g., lack of participation, no leadership involvement, poor planning, unrealistic expectations, and unclear goals and outcomes). Successful mentoring programs require proper understanding, planning, implementation and evaluation. Go to Ms. Sams helps organizations identify and implement the structures for the best-practices of mentoring that meets the specific needs of your organization.

Engaging the Business Community in Mentoring

Approximately 70% of corporations in the United States have mentoring programs for their employees. This astounding statistic raises value proposition for mentoring and sends a message that mentoring is a vehicle for success. In addition to companies engaging their employees in mentoring each other, corporations also look to mentor youth as a form of impactful and sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility.