building partnerships in schools

Building PartnershipsIn Schools

Today’s Agenda

• Know your potential school partner

• Evaluate the fit of your program to the potential school

• Have a successful meeting

• Maintain your partnership

• Resources

• Questions

What is school based mentoring?

Typically, School Based Mentoring is a K–12 student is paired with an adult from the community or an older (usually high school) student in a supportive one-to-one relationship at the school site.

Considerations for Working with Schools

• The school’s culture, policies, and procedures

• Orientation of your mentors to school culture

• Be understanding of the school staff and administrators experiences with previous outside programs

• Other outside programs in the school

Considerations for Working with Schools

• Your program staff presence

• Three-way communication

• Trouble shooting

• Partnerships between organizations often depend on particular individuals within each organization

Getting to Know the School & District

• School district website• Specific school site website• Michigan School Report Card

oeaa.state.mi.us/ayp• Know the grades of your school and where

they go next• Check out programs already offered at the

school• Identify a champion• Connect with the school counselor or

secretary• Be alert to potential “turf” issues

Exploring Your Program Design for School Based Mentoring

• Consider your program design and goals for school based mentoring

• Flexibility with school administration

• Longer, stronger matches for positive youth outcomes

• Educational objectives

Who Will Become Mentees?

• Student needs & program objectives• Which students• Mentee outreach/referrals• Mentee interviews• Parental consent• How many

Mentor Sources

• Beneficial to identify a source for each school

• Proximity for the mentor is still a key factor• Consider these sources

– Mentors already in your program– Corporate / work site volunteers– Service club– Retirees / senior citizens volunteers– College volunteers– High school volunteers

Match Meetings

When– Time of day– Day(s) of week– Frequency– Length of each match meeting– Start of program and end of program year

Where– Specific room– Are there options for space

Meeting structure– Individual or group match meetings– Activities that fit program goals

Support of Program & Matches

• Identify your key staff for program

• Support of matches– On site during match meetings?– Frequency of connecting– Support from school staff

Support Needed from School

• Funding for the program

• Space needed

• Role of the principal, teachers, school secretary and/or other school personnel

• Information needed from the school about mentees to evaluate your program

Program Timeline

Consider the “ideal” time for these:• Student referrals• Student interviews• Mentor recruitment & screening• First match meetings• Match meeting & match support schedule• Special events• End of the school year for matches

– Summer contact– Closure if necessary

• Evaluation

Program Operational Items

• Prepare a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)– Responsibilities of each party.– Outline elements of your program design– Needed space(s) – School liaison role

• Legal and Liability Issues– Screening mentors– Confidentiality– Safety – Insurance coverages and limits– Procedures for reporting and tracking any incidents.

• Financial agreementsSchool's contribution to the program– In-kind donations– Mentor recognition ceremonies – Incentive for the school liaison

Meeting with the School

• Decision maker• Identify any connections your

organization may have currently• Find a “champion”• Middle school and high schools -

guidance counselors or school social worker

• Good to know the secretary• Brining other community partners to

the table

A Successful Meeting

• Best time of the year• May need to have multiple meetings to

get to right person• Bring your champion and program staff• Keep it short and sweet• Utilize your MOU as a meeting agenda• Get to know your decision maker• Be prepared to answer questions

A Successful Meeting

Sell your program. – Share a success story– Share data– Share the benefit for students and school– Which students do you want to serve– Where you will get mentors – share if you already have

mentors available– Safety

Ask about school’s rules for volunteersBe flexible with your program designUsing the MOU

– School Role– Program Role– Mentor Role

If you can – have the prepared MOU ready for signing!

Challenges

• Meeting with the right person at the right time

• Selling your program benefits

• School personnel support for program

• School calendar

• Space for matches

• Staff changes

Maintaining the Partnership

• Communication• Solicit feedback• Problem solve• Recognize/celebrate your matches at school

and invite school administration to join your group

• Attend teacher/staff meetings• Recognize your school liaisons• Appreciate the school secretary• Program Evaluation – share your results• Consider an end of the year report

Conclusion

Building a successful partnership elements

• Knowing school

• Consider your program design and fit for the school site

• Successful meeting – prepared & flexible

• Be sure to maintain your partnership

Resources:

Northwest Regional Education Laboratory – National Mentoring Center

– The ABC’s of School-Based Mentoring, Technical assistance packet

educationnorthwest.org/resource/647

U.S. Department of Education – Mentoring Resource Center

– Keeping Mentoring Relationships Going during the Summer Months

edmentoring.org

School Based Mentoring BBBSA PPV

ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/32_publication.pdf

The Mentor Consulting Group

– Two Decades of Learned Lessons from School-Based Mentoring

mentorconsultinggroup.com/pub/lessons

Resources: MENTOR

• Elements of Effective Practice Toolkit– www.mentoring.org– Forms, checklists, sample documents, etc

• Research in Action SeriesIssue 6: School Based Mentoringwww.mentoring.org/downloads/mentoring_387.pdf

Now What?

• Bring this information back to YOUR mentoring program– What are your program’s strategies for

partnership building with schools?

• Mentor Michigan Website – www.mentormichigan.org– Handouts, resources, related websites– Webinars on a variety of topics

Upcoming Webinar

Match Closure AnalysisJoin us for this webinar to learn how your program can approach match closure analysis. We will discuss which closed matches to review and what areas of your program to review. Deciding to conduct a match closure analysis will help your program have longer and stronger matches. In the long run, match closure analysis is an investment that will save you time and more; give you valuable experience; and help you to preserve one of your most valuable resources – your mentors.

May 17, 2011 at 2:00pm

May 19, 2011 at 9:00am

Visit the Training and TA page on the Mentor Michigan website (www.mentormichigan.org) to register!

Questions or Comments?