Tools for Mentoring Adolescents were developed by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota in collaboration with the Search Institute to support and strengthen relationships between mentors and mentees.  We hope that these resources will offer new ideas and insights for mentors and mentor program staff to enhance relationships with teens, and also assist in recruiting more community members to support young people during their ever-changing, but always interesting, adolescent years. 

How to use the resources

Click here for info on an upcoming Tools for Mentoring Adolescents training!

These tools were developed based on needs identified by mentoring professionals from across Minnesota.  In interviews and group discussions we talked about challenges, successes, promising practices, and ways programs currently support relationships between mentors and adolescents.  Based on those conversations, we developed these free, downloadable tools for use by mentor program staff and mentors. When using these tools there are a few things to keep in mind:

·        For Mentors:  Mentor program staff are by far the most important resource available to mentoring matches made through professional organizations.  While these tools include great, useful information, it’s important that mentors and mentees talk through questions or concerns they have with their program staff.

·        For Mentor Program Staff:  Before sharing these tools, please read them thoroughly to make sure you understand and agree with the information presented.  If you have other ideas, opinions, or suggestions, please share those with your program participants as well.

·        For Everyone:  These materials reflect general, collective knowledge gleaned from years of practical experience.  But remember that no one has all the right answers; each mentoring relationship is unique and thus will have its own nuances and charm. Mentoring is not a one-size-fits-all proposition!

What do mentor program staff say about  the Tools for Mentoring Adolescents?

"Although there are a lot of resources out there for mentoring, the right one is many times hard to find, especially for the age and risk level of my clients.  These are good tools" - Restorative Justice Mentoring Coordinator

"Communication is so essential to building mentoring relationships - this resource gives some practical advice for guiding communication." - Mentoring Partnership Annual Conference participant

"The “Try It” and “What Can You Do” sections are good, as they give people concrete things that they can do to strengthen their match." - One to One Match Support Manager

"I think this would be excellent as a resource for mentors either in a training or by providing this info in a newsletter or on our website." - Mentoring Partnership Annual Conference participant

"Very concrete, useful information." - Mentoring Program Coordinator

For additional information:

For assistance with training needs for mentoring programs, please contact April McHugh, Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota, at aprilm@mentoringworks.org or 612-370-9148.

For further information on Developmental Assets and strength-based intervention programs, please contact Search Institute at si@search-institute.org or 1-800-888-7828.

Note: The tools are provided for your non-commercial use as described in the document footnotes.  They are offered as PDF documents, and you will need Adobe Reader 7.0 to access them.  You can download Adobe for free at www.adobe.com.