A Campaign for Mentoring: Leading Practices
in Program Development Conference
How Are The Children? Expanding the World of Quality Mentoring
In this opening address Gonder-Spacek will provide both context and insight to the growing national mentoring movement. She will highlight how mentoring has evolved in the United States and she will pay particular attention to the social return on investment of youth mentoring programs. An energizing speaker, Gonder-Spacek will call upon her wealth of experience to encourage all participants to make a continued commitment to the mentoring field.
Joellen Gonder-Spacek is the founding executive director of the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. Since 1994, she has led the strategic direction of one of the original mentoring partnerships in the United States. Gonder-Spacek has provided leadership to the mentoring movement and brought together a multitude of community leaders around the issue of more mentoring for children, youth, and families in Minnesota. Recognized as national leaders, Gonder-Spacek and her staff, board of directors, and volunteers have recruited 44,000 thousand mentors, generated over $4 million dollars, provide d training to over 10,000 mentors and 300 mentor organizations, assembled mentor networks for 400 mentor programs, and developed an award-winning multi-media public education to action campaign. Gonder-Spacek has twenty years of experience in resource development, community mobilization, partnership development, strategic planning, marketing communications, and social entrepreneurism.
A Campaign Kickoff!
This is the official kickoff for the new mentoring campaign being spearheaded by the UW-Parkside Center for Community Partnerships and leading members of the Kenosha/Racine mentoring community. Presenters will speak about the campaign and offer newly established criteria for effective mentoring programs. The criteria were developed collaboratively by practitioners in the community and informed by research on effective mentoring practices.
Kristina Gomez is an AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) serving as the University of Wisconsin – Parkside’s Center for Community Partnerships Mentoring Campaign Coordinator. The Mentoring Campaign assists mentoring programs in Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin to build capacity so they are better able to serve their clients. In 2006-2007, Ms. Gomez served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Family-School-Communnity Team with Milwaukee Public Schools.
Dr. Thomas Schnaubelt assumed the position of Dean for Community Engagement and Civic Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2005. This newly reconfigured position focuses on leveraging the university's intellectual and human capital toward improving community and civic life. As Dean, Dr. Schnaubelt provides leadership for the Center for Community Partnerships, which serves UWP's “front door” for community engagement activities such as community-based learning/research, professional development and continuing education, and community dialogues. Prior to assuming the role of dean, Dr. Schnaubelt served as the first Executive Director of Wisconsin Campus Compact, where he provided leadership for a coalition of 34 college and university presidents and chancellors committed to the civic purposes of higher education.
Prior to moving to Wisconsin, Tom served as the founding director of the Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement at the University of Southern Mississippi . His work in Mississippi focused on strengthening democratic ideals by fostering partnerships that improve educational achievement. While at USM, Dr. Schnaubelt taught graduate courses on the social and civic foundations of education, where he integrated academic service-learning into each course. Dr. Schnaubelt also served for five years as the Director of Academic Service Programming in the Division of Academic Affairs at the Mississippi state college board office and was the University of Southern Mississippi 's first director of service-learning. Tom grew up in Wisconsin and received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point , an M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan , and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Mississippi .
Mark Gesner is a Program Specialist in the Community-Based Research and Evaluation area in the University of Wisconsin – Parkside’s Center for Community Partnerships. Mark’s university work has included educational attainment and mentoring research for the Racine County Workforce Development Center, and evaluation coordination for the Racine County Youthful Offenders Re-entry Program. Mark also serves the community as a nonprofit organizational consultant specializing in directional planning, research, program design and evaluation. Mark spent much of his career working for Hostelling International – USA, a nonprofit organization with a mission of promoting intercultural exchange through educational travel. Mark began his tenure with HI-USA as a youth hostel manager and eventually became the organization’s national director of education and development. Other work experiences for Mark have included being an elementary school educator, a university staff development director, and a mental health counselor. Mark received his Bachelors degree from the State University of New York at Albany and his Masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Concurrent Workshops Session I 9:35 - 10:30
A. Program Leader Panel: Insights on Program Management
Regional program leaders will bring their expertise to the table as they discuss their approaches to various critical issues facing mentoring programs today. This presentation will focus on a question and answer period where participants can get practical answers to pressing concerns.
Mike Frontier served as a principal in Racine at all levels, elementary, middle and high school in Racine for 30 years. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in 1993. He founded San Juan Diego Middle School in 2002.San Juan Diego is a 5th through 8th grade school which is part of a network of schools throughout the United States designed to dramatically increase the graduation and college matriculation rate for underserved students.
Kathy Munson is the Director of Mentoring Programs at the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee. Her YMCA programs include One on One Academic Mentoring Program, Sponsor-A-Scholar and Milwaukee Mentors. Kathy is the Volunteer Chair of the Wisconsin Youth Mentoring Council. She has nineteen years experience in the development and management of youth mentoring programs, mentor recruitment and training, public relations and fundraising, and community collaborative efforts. Kathy is a member of the Implementation Team and co-chair of the Family Literacy and Tutoring Workgroup for the Milwaukee Partnership Academy.
Tom Weiss has been the Director of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Racine and Kenosha for 13 years. He has been involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters at the volunteer and board level for over 35 years. A 73’ UW-Parkside Graduate, Tom is a lifelong member of the Racine and Kenosha area and has been a proud Big Brother for 32 years.
Joellen Gonder-Spacek is the founding executive director of the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. Since 1994, she has led the strategic direction of one of the original mentoring partnerships in the United States. Gonder-Spacek has provided leadership to the mentoring movement and brought together a multitude of community leaders around the issue of more mentoring for children, youth, and families in Minnesota. Recognized as national leaders, Gonder-Spacek and her staff, board of directors, and volunteers have recruited 44,000 thousand mentors, generated over $4 million dollars, provide d training to over 10,000 mentors and 300 mentor organizations, assembled mentor networks for 400 mentor programs, and developed an award-winning multi-media public education to action campaign. Gonder-Spacek has twenty years of experience in resource development, community mobilization, partnership development, strategic planning, marketing communications, and social entrepreneurism.
B. Culturally Intelligent Relationships: Tools for Mentors & Mentees
Understanding the “baggage” our kids carry with them and the need to unpack our own “baggage” is essential for building trust and developing positive relationships. In this workshop, participants will receive tools and activities compiled and developed by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota to help mentoring programs build culturally intelligent relationships among their mentors, mentees, staff and parents.
April McHugh is the Director of Training and Community Partnerships for the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. McHugh joined the Mentoring Partnership in June of 2006 and has the responsibility of overseeing and managing the Mentoring Partnership’s Training Institute resources, which includes developing new curricula to assist mentors and others with preventing risky behaviors in young people, and training mentoring program providers throughout the state about mentoring program management and operations. McHugh is also responsible for building partnerships with community organizations involved in adult-youth mentoring in order to enhance opportunities for adults to connect with youth in their communities.
McHugh’s background includes working with youth and camping programs at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center (JCC), including the development of an award-winning workplace youth mentoring program. Before joining the JCC, she worked with several youth-serving organizations in Southwest Minnesota, including the Nobles County Family Connections Collaborative where she created and directed the CIRCLE Summer Camp & Mentoring Program. CIRCLE is an innovative mentoring program which trains and matches teen mentors with elementary students with the goal of building developmental assets in highest risk children.
McHugh has done training and presentations for many organizations before joining the Mentoring Partnership--including AmeriCorps, Boys Town, MN Alliance with Youth and many others – focusing primarily on youth work and leadership development.
McHugh started mentoring when she was in college, studying sociology at Hamline University. She participated in the Best Buddies program there and also coached junior high girls’ basketball. She has been a Big Sister in the past and was also a mentor to a participant in the JCC’s workplace mentoring program. She is currently a Bolder Options running mentor.
McHugh continues to develop her youth development and training skills through participation in community certification programs and other professional development opportunities.
C. How to Start and Sustain a Volunteer-Based Tutor / Mentor Program
The presenter will share lessons learned from 30 years of leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program serving inner city teens. Participants will learn different steps, from initial research, to volunteer recruitment and on-going process evaluation. Participants will also be challenged to think of the long-term goals of a new mentoring/tutoring program, the demographics and social/emotional needs of youth being served, and the role of volunteers as leaders, organizers and capacity builders. During the workshop the presenter will show how Cabrini Connections (http://www.cabriniconnections.net) draws upon information and ideas that have been collected by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and which are hosted in the http://www.tutormentorconnection.org library.
Daniel F. Bassill has led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs serving inner-city children and youth for more than 30 years. Between 1973 and 1990 this was a volunteer role, as Bassill held various advertising positions within the Montgomery Ward Corporation. Since 1975, more than 3,500 volunteers and 3,300 children have participated in programs Bassill has led. Some volunteers have participated for more than 10 consecutive years and some students have participated from first grade through college.
In 1992, Bassill and six other volunteer leaders formed Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, which is a non profit organization based in Chicago. Cabrini Connections is a volunteer-based, direct-service, non-school-program (www.cabriniconnections.net) that combines tutoring, mentoring and education-to-career concepts in an on-going commitment to 7th through 12th grade teens that we “will do everything we can” to help these youth be holding jobs and starting a career by age 25.
The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) is an intermediary service that collects and shares knowledge about tutoring, mentoring, education-to-careers programs in Chicago and other cities and organizes actions designed to help comprehensive tutor/mentor programs grow in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago (or any other major city). Visit T/MC web sites to learn more. www.tutormentorconnection.org and http://tutormentor.blogspot.com.
Break 10:30 - 10:45
Concurrent Workshop Session II 10:45 - 11:40
A. Mentee Panel: Mentoring That Worked (And Didn't Work)
For Me
Hear directly from individuals who have been mentored or who are currently being mentored in the Racin e and Kenosha communities. Panelists will share their experiences as mentees and discuss how mentoring has impacted their lives. A question and answer period will give conference participants a chance to learn “direct from the source” about what is meaningful and especially beneficial for mentees.
B. Training Quality Mentors: A Big Brothers and Big Sisters Approach
Recruiting mentors is half the battle, but what do you do once you have an enthusiastic individual ready to make an impact in someone’s life? Join the presenter as he shares techniques to training quality mentors with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters training model.
Tom Weiss has been the Director of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Racine and Kenosha for 13 years. He has been involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters at the volunteer and board level for over 35 years. A 73’ UW-Parkside Graduate, Tom is a lifelong member of the Racine and Kenosha area and has been a proud Big Brother for 32 years.
C. Energizing & Retaining Mentors
Your volunteers are screened, trained and matched with a young person. Whew! Now you can rest, right? Wrong--this is the time that your mentors need your support most. Learn practical and creative ways to keep your mentors motivated and energized. Using these tips and ideas, and recognizing the need to support mentors throughout the life of their match, will help to sustain mentors’ commitment to your program and increase the impact on mentees.
April McHugh is the Director of Training and Community Partnerships for the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. McHugh joined the Mentoring Partnership in June of 2006 and has the responsibility of overseeing and managing the Mentoring Partnership’s Training Institute resources, which includes developing new curricula to assist mentors and others with preventing risky behaviors in young people, and training mentoring program providers throughout the state about mentoring program management and operations. McHugh is also responsible for building partnerships with community organizations involved in adult-youth mentoring in order to enhance opportunities for adults to connect with youth in their communities.
McHugh’s background includes working with youth and camping programs at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center (JCC), including the development of an award-winning workplace youth mentoring program. Before joining the JCC, she worked with several youth-serving organizations in Southwest Minnesota, including the Nobles County Family Connections Collaborative where she created and directed the CIRCLE Summer Camp & Mentoring Program. CIRCLE is an innovative mentoring program which trains and matches teen mentors with elementary students with the goal of building developmental assets in highest risk children.
McHugh has done training and presentations for many organizations before joining the Mentoring Partnership--including AmeriCorps, Boys Town, MN Alliance with Youth and many others – focusing primarily on youth work and leadership development.
McHugh started mentoring when she was in college, studying sociology at Hamline University. She participated in the Best Buddies program there and also coached junior high girls’ basketball. She has been a Big Sister in the past and was also a mentor to a participant in the JCC’s workplace mentoring program. She is currently a Bolder Options running mentor.
McHugh continues to develop her youth development and training skills through participation in community certification programs and other professional development opportunities.
Looking for personal attention? In this unique conference offering participants can meet one on one with an experienced mentoring program leader. It’s an individual consultation opportunity where participants discuss their own program’s current challenges and perhaps find a mentor of their own!
In this closing session a short summary of all the workshops will be offered and Chairperson Kathy Munson will provide an introduction to the Wisconsin Youth Mentoring Council.
