Agency Details:

Be A Mentor, Inc.

Cause at-risk youth to understand the relationship between choices and consequences on their quest to becoming productive citizens through the help of community volunteer mentors.

Description:
Direct Services
Recruitment, background clearance and screening, and training of adult volunteers to be matched one-to-one or in groups with at-risk youth. Identify youth at-risk of dropping out of school, exhibiting violent behavior, and exhibiting signs of drug and alcohol abuse. Interview mentors and youth to make appropriate matches and provide support services for both.

Infrastructure Services
With many great programs in existence, there is a great need for capacity building. The intent of the Be A Mentor infrastructure and capacity building systems is to eliminate redundancy of logistical tasks required to set up and manage programs and projects; and allow program operators to focus efforts on the volunteers and the youth they are working with. Primary elements of capacity building include recruitment of volunteers, background clearing/screening, and training of volunteer applicants so they are ready to serve.

Be A Mentor, Inc. offers web-based systems and tools that utilize a single database. Programs in a region have prospective volunteers complete an online application, which is submitted to the Be A Mentor database. Applicants then go through a stringent background investigation and clearance, and screening process. As part of the screening process, applicants participate in training classes. Once applicants are cleared and are ready to serve, their entire electronic file is available to individual program operators via login ID and password on the secure Be A Mentor web site. Program operators have online tools available to track and monitor each volunteer matched individually with a youth or in a group.

History:
A few of our Projects are:

Hayward Schools Mentoring Project - The project matches adult, community volunteers with children in the five HUSD middle schools to create 150 one-to-one mentoring relationships each project year.

Mentoring Children of Prisoners - MCP Project aims to match adult community volunteers with youth up to 18 whose parents are incarcerated to create one-on-one mentoring relationships.

Foster Care Mentoring Project - Foster Care Children do not have a permanent home and family. They attend the schools like other kids but they are missing a family that is just theirs. Caring adult volunteers are matched one-on-one with a Foster Youth as a role model, coach, and guide. With the mentors guidance the youth will come to understand that there are consequence to every choice made and the simple daily choices become a pattern that determines the life path.

Castlemont High School - These youth live among crime, violence, and drug abuse. They need positive adult role models to help them rise above the dysfunction and become productive, contributing citizens.

City of Dreams in SF - City of Dreams is dedicated to helping at-risk youth build brighter futures. We provide caring mentors in group settings and one-on-one matches, designed to help young people understand the value of staying in school and avoiding teen pregnancy, drugs, and gangs. The youth in our program are ages 10-14. (A reliable transportation is required-whether it’s your own car or City Carshare)

Contact person: Meilan Liu, Administrative Assistant, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (510) 795-6498

Address:

1260 B Street, Suite 375 Hayward, CA 94541 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.beamentor.org

Last updated on May 26, 2009