Mentor Programs for Adults: ALMS Nonprofit Mentor Program
All Leaders Must Serve is a nonprofit California mentoring organization that significantly contributes to the community, by empowering young adults ages 15-25 through job readiness soft skills.
These skills, including work ethic, character development, and communication, and they not only benefit the individual but also contribute to the community's growth. This service is made possible with the invaluable assistance of adult mentors who offer their time in various capacities. Whether it's two hours a day, two hours a week, or two hours a month, every mentor's contribution is significant. Some mentors even go beyond these commitments, participating in community service or activities with the youth participants that further enhance the training.
The following is the mentor description that ALMS follows.
WHAT IS A MENTOR?
Being a mentor is about more than just sharing your experiences and advice. It’s about listening and understanding.
A great adult mentor is known by how they inspire young adults to reach their goals, and that inspiration comes from a relationship. A mentor is not about control, but about building a meaningful relationship. The character and function of this relationship determine the quality and outcome of the mentorship. A mentor is committed to the developmental growth of the mentee, not living vicariously through them. If you find yourself talking more about yourself than listening to the mentee, you are not being a mentor. A mentor wants to understand the mentee so they can be encouraged in their journey and calling.
A mentor can serve their mentee in the following ways:
They are a source of information. Mentors have the advantage of life experiences that the mentee does not have. Mentors can share advice, direction, and know-how.
They provide wisdom. Wisdom means “the skill of living” or knowing what to do next.
They promote specific skills and effective behavior. Mentors provide practical encouragement, so the mentee grows emotionally, as well as in other ways.
They provide feedback. The mentor is a mirror and commentator. They share an informed point of view with a long-term strategy for life and respecting others.
They coach. As a coach, they prepare and instruct their mentee to win at life.
They are a sounding board. Mentors provide to their mentee the opportunity to test ideas and intuitions before they become attitudes, behavior, or plans.
They are someone to turn to. Mentors are available for times of personal reflection and crises so the mentee can learn to trust, be authentic, respect their mentor and engage in an honest relationship. A mentor engenders that kind of confidence. . .
They help devise plans. Whether one is charting a path for higher learning, plotting a career path or struggling with personal decisions in relationships, a mentor lends perspective and practical advice.
They nurture curiosity. Mentors tend to open doors rather than close them. They show the possibilities, the opportunities and the unexplored. They seem to have a fondness for asking questions that create critical thinking skills and social awareness.
All Leaders Must Serve is dedicated to empowering students to become confident, resilient, and self-sufficient. We achieve this through the transformative power of mentoring relationships and job readiness training. By providing on-site mentoring services at high school campuses, we are able to build trust and relationships, reaching more students and inspiring hope for a brighter future.
Our mentor relationships and training not only identify leadership potential among youth participants but also nurture it, guiding these individuals towards a path of leadership and success. These young leaders have the opportunity to shine in front of their peers during our teenage mentoring opportunities, a testament to the impact of our mentorship programs.
For instance, during our first pilot program at a continuation high school, a young woman who had run away from home and was struggling with school attendance and engagement had a transformation during the eight-week program. After completing the Job Readiness sessions, ALMS recognized her leadership abilities and invited her to continue with the next group, allowing her to choose a lesson she would like to teach. She was thrilled, and she decided on the last lesson called “Leaders That Serve.” One part of this lesson allows the students to choose what positive characteristics they would like to be remembered by when they are much older. They have a chance to pick one character out of ten to twelve words. As this young lady was asking the other girls to select one, she commented.
“What I’ve learned is that once you select one, the others seem to follow.” What a profound thought from an 18-year-old in a continuation school. She went on to work with autistic children and has found her way as a leader who serves.
Becoming a mentor is not just about helping at-risk youth, it's also about personal growth and fulfillment. You have the opportunity to watch young people who otherwise might be lost to the streets, a connection to this new generation that needs to be seen, heard, and gently pushed in the right direction. We, as a community and country, cannot afford to let our young people drift off into the abyss just because they’re angry and frightened of what they don’t understand. If we had someone who took our hand and helped us, we owe it to the next generation. If we did not have that special person in our lives, we may not understand why it’s so important to do it.
When we invest in the next generation with positive thoughts, encouragement, and inspiration, we are not just touching their lives, but the lives they will touch. Instead of investing in addressing social issues like domestic violence, child abuse, homelessness, poverty, and crime, we should invest in those aged 15-25 before they become part of these statistics.
Let’s break the cycle one young person at a time.
Become an adult mentor – because mentoring at-risk youth is a responsibility we all share.
Donate to youth mentorship programs.
Go to our website at https://www.allleadersmustserve.org/donate. Or contact me at Jayne@almsinyolo.org;
www.AllLeadersMustServe.org