Grand Area Mentoring’s COVID-Safe Plan Welcome to the 2020/2021 academic year! We face unprecedented times. Mentor health and the health of children and families are Grand Area Mentoring’s top priorities. The program’s plan to keep everyone safe includes: Health status requirements Symptom Checks Meeting protocols (for example: wearing masks, community-based mentoring for 6th graders, and [...]
Mentoring in Moab COVID-19 Update COVID-19 has changed our world. Schools are closed. Public gatherings are no-nos. Stress and anxiety levels rise. In-person mentoring has been suspended almost everywhere. This leaves many youth across the country without crucial regular support. At-risk populations living in poverty find themselves particularly unstable at this time. Grand Area Mentoring [...]
Time to Shine In the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring, Dr. Jean Rhodes writes: “Although COVID-19 appears to spare children from the most serious health problems, marginalized youth are likely to bear the heaviest burdens of trauma & economic fallout.” We mentors have an opportunity to blunt the blow by persevering through the hard times. Mentoring [...]
Shutterbug Shenanigans! Photography Mini-Clinic for Mentors Photography can be a great tool to explore the world and learn to express oneself visually! Learning how to look at photographs and compose an image can be beneficial in a culture flooded with imagery. This mini-clinic will provide ideas for incorporating photography into your mentoring sessions and offer: [...]
Mentoring Tip – Mind Your Stress Mentoring is about service. Why, then, should we focus so much on taking care of ourselves? Shouldn’t all our efforts be focused on helping a youth? Just as caregivers are expected to first don an oxygen mask before offering aid if an airplane loses cabin pressure, mentors need to first [...]
Mentoring Tip – Your Intentional Tone Our body language, quality of voice, and facial expressions reveal a lot about our motivations, emotions, and impressions of others. Negative cues may be especially impactful to youth who have experienced trauma. This is why mentors should develop greater self-awareness of their own posture and communication style. When meeting with [...]
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention 101 w/ Seekhaven When: Dec 17th, 4:30-5:30pm Where: HMK Elementary, Room 141 Seekhaven will cover the nuances of violence or sexual trauma, possible impacts on children (either as a primary or secondary victims), and the best practices for first responders. Whether you work with mentees or more broadly [...]
Mentor Roundtable! November 6, 5-6pm, Grand Co Public Library Large Meeting Room You’re not alone. Join us to talk about the mentoring experience, discuss your hurdles & successes, learn from others about how they have handled tough situations, and reflect with staff on best practices. This is an opportunity to talk about mentoring with people who [...]
Establishing a Steady State Over 16 million children across America lack consistent access to a positive adult presence in their lives. This isn’t a trivial statistic. For youths who live in poverty and are more likely to experience severe or recurring trauma, adult support may be the only thing preventing them from entering into a [...]
Training: The Keys of Communication with Antje Rath of Moab Regional Hospital Communicating with children can be a challenge. If we had a quarter for every “I don’t know” answer, we might all be rich by now. 🙂 At this training, Antje will offer strategies to facilitate open, fun, productive, and helpful conversations with your [...]