THE MENTORING PROCESS

Advantages of Mentoring

The following are all advantages of mentoring programs:

•Mentors are a significant factor in fostering academic achievement among youth.

•Youth are provided with positive role models who can, through examples and introduction to positive alternative life-styles, steer them from a life of self-destruction.

•Mentors encourage mentoree's to understand the necessity of having an understanding and love for self.

•Mentors assist mentoree's on how to create, develop and use positive decision making skills, critical thinking skills, and problem solving skills.

•Through mentoring, youth are exposed to a variety of activities and environments that encourages progressive growth.

Nirvana Institute is committed to the cause of mentoring and developing a strong network of services, specifically as it relates to black family development and the uplift of the African American male. The institute offers several services in the mentoring arena that include the development and creation; facilitation; and management of mentoring projects/programs.

Nirvana Ministries provides group mentoring services to several elementary and middle schools throughout the Milwaukee area. Each group mentoring session occurs in a classroom setting and is designed to accompany 30 boys/girls or less and last for approximately one hour.

Program goals are centered around a concept called "The 7 R's" (Respect, Responsibility, Restraint, Reclamation, Reorganization, Reasoning, and Redemption)- Currently this curriculum is being used with the following programs: What Is A Man program; What Is A Woman program; and the The Booker T. Washington Young Investors Club.

Curriculum Outline

Respect

•Session 1 - Respect and knowledge of self based on cultural understanding

•Session 2 - Respect for others - ancestors, elders, peers

•Session 3 - Respect for the opposite sex

First Field Project: Each participant will adopt a senior citizen which requires a total of 24 hours of contact which will be recorded in activity log. Contact will include a combination of errands, phone conversations, letters and special gifts or items of affection.

Responsibility

•Session 4 - Personal Responsibility - to myself: (physical and mental) hygiene, sexual behavior, stress

•Session 5 - Personal Responsibility - at home, parents, siblings

•Session 6 - Personal Responsibility - at school and community

Restraint

•Session 7 - Learning to control my temper and negotiating my way through problems

•Session 8 - Sexual behavior and learning to control your desires

•Session 9 - Steering from criminal behavior and peer pressure

Second Field Project: will be held for all participants in support of the next three sessions. During the field trip, participants will be taken to a restaurant for dinner. Dinner etiquette and presenting one's self in public will be stressed.

Reclamation

•Session 10 - Sankofa: learning and understanding your history

•Session 11 - Understanding the necessity of study

•Session 12 - How to use the library

Reorganization

•Session 13 - Understanding the importance of time and how to manage it

•Session 14 - Organizing your life, your school life and your business

•Session 15 - Setting goals and objectives

Reasoning

•Session 16 - Learning to think your way through life

•Session 17 - Learning to critically think

•Session 18 - Learning to critically listen