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GoodGuides™
The Mission of GoodGuides™ To empower youth to make positive choices that enable them to maximize their current and future potential.
GoodGuides™ engages adult volunteers who are expected to commit to supporting, guiding, and being a friend to a young person for a period of at least one year. GoodGuides™ mentors are good listeners, encouraging, supportive, flexible, patient, tolerant, and respectful of individual differences.
Mentor Role
- Serve as positive role model and friend
- Build relationship by planning and participating in activities together
- Be willing to share information on your career and explore career options with your mentee
- Strive for mutual respect
- Build self-esteem and motivation
- Help set goals and work toward accomplishing them
- Be respectful of the mentee’s time, opinions, and decision-making
- Model desirable behaviors such as flexibility, patience, tolerance, respect, and reflective listening
- Be comfortable and able to establish appropriate boundaries with the mentee and her/his family
As a Mentor what you can expect from GoodGuides™ Program
- Pre-service and ongoing training to prepare you to meet the program goals
- Assistance in matching you with a youth who shares your interests
- Ongoing support from the Program Manager and Master Mentor
- Assistance in troubleshooting problems as they arise
- A safe place to meet your mentee with staff available to help
- Help in developing projects and activities to do with your mentee
- Staff support in completing all reports for the program
Mentor Service Requirements:
- Fulfill application process: written application, face-to-face interview, background check, and three references
- Make a one-year commitment to meet six hours per month with your mentee, communicating weekly
- Keep track of and report time spent with your mentee
- Communicate with the Program Manager/Master Mentor at least monthly
- Attend ongoing training and mentor group meetings
- Adhere to all program policies and procedures
- Be dependable and consistent in meeting time commitments
- Attend special events and recognition events as available
- Complete surveys as asked, and ensure youth complete surveys as asked
Benefits of being a mentor:
- Personal fulfillment: making a difference for a youth in need
- Satisfaction: helping someone mature, progress, and achieve goals
- Personal growth: training sessions and group activities
- Personal ongoing support and supervision
- Mentee/Mentor group activities, complimentary tickets to community events, and recognition events
- Access to the services and resources of Goodwill Industries of Southwest Oklahoma & North Texas, Inc.
Youth:
- Spend at least four hours in-person per month with my mentor for a minimum of one year, and be available to talk to my mentor weekly.
- Communicate my activities and successes and challenges of my mentoring relationship with the Master Mentor or other GoodGuides staff person.
- Include my mentor in deciding activities and scheduling match meetings.
- Inform my parent/guardian about match activities and times.
- Arrive on time, every day as scheduled (except for excused absences) for appointments.
- Contact my mentor as soon as possible if for some reason I cannot make an activity for whatever reason. I will also contact the Master Mentor.
Parents:
- Support my child in meeting with the mentor for at least four hours per month for a minimum of one year.
- Return all phone calls from my child’s mentor or the GoodGuides staff in a timely manner.
- Ask my child about match activities, and stay informed about the match meeting schedule.
- Assist my child in arriving on time, every day as scheduled (except for excused absences) for appointments.
- Not view my child’s mentor as a sitter or request that the mentor take other children in my family on match activities.
- Contact GoodGuides staff immediately if I feel my child’s mentor has been inappropriate, or if my child has expressed that there is a problem.
- Respect my child’s mentor, and understand that we may not have the same values or see things the same way, but we can agree to learn from and accept each other.
- Work with my child and the mentor to assist my child in reaching goals.
- Participate in group meetings and special events when possible, and provide overall support to the GoodGuides program.
For more information contact:
GoodGuides™ Program Manager, Robert Zackery
- Cell: 580-583-8053
- Email: rzackery@goodwillsont.org
GoodGuides™ Master Mentor, Christine Primas
- Cell: 580-583-9324
- Email: cprimas@goodwillsont.org
GoodGuides™ Master Mentor, Shereyl White
- Cell: 580-583-9324
- Email: swhite@goodwillsont.org
Office Location:
- Goodwill Adult Day Services and Youth Center
- 923 Hilltop Drive, Lawton OK 73507
- Office:580-248-9313
- Fax: 580-248-4202
GoodGuides™ is a Service of Goodwill Industries of Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas, Inc.
