Mentoring

Challenge:

“Boys and young men of color are more likely than their peers to be born into low income families and live in concentrated poverty; to have teenage mothers; to live with one or no parent; to attend high poverty/poor performing schools; to miss out on rigorous classes; and to have teachers that are inexperienced or unqualified.”

Opportunity:

Students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class.

CH4K Action:

CH4K’s goal is to leverage Mentoring as a process to reshaping the life-outcomes of our young Protégés thereby ensuring enhanced life-experiences for these young individuals going forward. While our programs will be tracked and measured on a daily basis, the Organization will track major progress every five years with the year 2060 as a major milestone.

CH4K will accomplish this goal by establishing solid and sustainable REWARDS Principles as part of the CH4K Mentoring program:

Reading

“to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of something (written printed, etc.): to read a book.”

The Mentor will engage in open and candid conversations with the Protégé about the importance of reading on a regular basis. The mentor will verbally test the Protégé on the subject of the book the Protégé agrees to read by asking open-ended question about certain outcomes from each book the Protégé reads or asking general question about what happened or how the story ended.

The Protégé will commit to reading a minimum of one and a half hours per day and one book every two months. The Protégé will be asked to engage in random discussions about the content of the book(s) he or she has read.

CH4K encourages all of our protégés to start reading as early as possible
The Protégés’ ability to read will contribute to his or her life-long social and professional success
The protégés’ ability to read will enhance his or her ability to learn
Reading in general and on a regular basis will ultimately improve the Protégé articulation of his or her views and significantly contribute to expanding the Protégé’s’ vocabulary.

Education

“the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession.

The Mentor will consistently express the need for the Protégé to make his or her education his or her absolute number one priority while instilling in the Protégé’s value-system the need to graduate from college and (ideally) obtain a Master’s and or Doctorates degree.

The Protégé will make a commitment to minimally graduate from college or establish a solid and meaningful plan to start a business. In either case, the Protégé will have a very clear understanding that as long as he or she is less than 21 years of age his or her education will be his or her “number one priority.”

Education will always be a priority over social activities, games and sleepovers
Homework first
Learning technical and engineering skill will enhance the Protégé’s chances of landing a good-paying job
Stress the fact that it’s cool to be smart

Work

“employment, as in some form of industry, especially as a means of earning one’s livelihood.”

The Mentor will teach and coach the Protégé on the value of working and doing his or her part to support him or herself while contributing to the support of the entire family. The Mentor will in no uncertain terms stress the importance of the Protégé understanding the difference of legitimate and legal work versus illegal practices

The Protégé will agree to aggressive seeking work-opportunities and/or starting small and simple businesses like washing cars or walking pets or selling lemonade. When the Protégé is old enough to legally work for a company, the Protégé will aggressively seek opportunities to work part-time while school is in and full time during school breaks (i.e. summer) and closings (i.e. Christmas and spring breaks).

Stress the fact there is nothing more fulfilling than to work and earn money to pay your own way. It’s better for the Protégé to pay his or her way than to ask for things
By working the Protégé can help with family bills and new projects at home
Working will allow the Protégé to save money for college and buy things and to do fun activities
Working will position the Protégé to have money to do things for others who are less-fortunate

Accountability

“the state of being accountable, liable or answerable.”

The Mentor will provide leadership as part of a bigger-picture plan to ensure the Protégé know right from wrong and the consequences of making bad choices. The mentor will also have open discussions about the notion of testing one’s limits of his or her liberties in the United States of America. The mentor will play a significant role stressing the importance of the Protégé being accountable for his or her actions and inactions related to participating in the Ch4K Mentoring Program. The mentor will stress the profound importance of the Protégé taking his involvement in the CH4K program very seriously by completing all of his or her expected deliverables i.e. reading a book per month. The mentor will stress the importance of his Protégé placing strict focus on his or her career aspirations and short and long-term goals.

The Protégé will pledge to and do his or her part to mitigate chances for getting in trouble by breaking local, city, state and federal laws. The Protégé will also pledge to do the things necessary to continue his or her involvement in the CH4K Mentoring Program. The Protégé will gain a broad understanding of his or her responsibility to preserve his or her Inalienable Right to “Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness” in the United States. The Protégé will use the original notion of Inalienable Rights as a basis for driving his or her career-plans forward and to fruition.

The Protégé should be taught that overall his or her choices will ultimately shape his or her life-outcome
Bad choices usually lead to really bad outcomes i.e. incarceration
Felony convictions will impact a child’s life for the rest of his or her life (can’t find a job, can’t vote)

Examples:

Making education “the” number one priority is a really good and smart choice
Steeling is a really dumb and bad choice

Respect

“the condition of being esteemed or honored: to be held in respect.

The Mentor will guide the Protégé by setting good examples of being respectful to yourself and others. These discussions should center on specific concerns related to how the Protégé dresses, speaks, and behaves in the presence of other adults and so on. Mentors should encourage Protégés to speak proper English and explain to the Protégé why speaking English is important as he or she grows into adulthood.

The Protégé will pledge to follow the examples provided by his or her mentor. The Protégé will be firmly committed to being respectful of himself or herself and others by demonstrating appropriate behaviors aligned with CH4K values (i.e. never using the N-word, dressing well, and speaking properly and so on). For instance, male CH4K Protégés should never wear his pants in a way that does not cover his entire backside).

In order for the Protégé to respect others, he or she must (first) respect himself or herself
The protégé’s appearance makes a huge difference in terms others viewing the protégé in high esteem or honor or low-esteem and/or disrespect
The way the Protégé speaks will also drive the way others view him or her. Profanity is unnecessary. The use of the N-word in disrespectful to an entire race of people. NO ONE SHOULD EVER APOLOGIZE TO THEIR PEERS OR ANYONE FOR SPEAKING ENGLISH
The Protégé should look, dress and speak in ways that absolutely command respect from others.

Doing for Others

“altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons…”

The Mentor will use his particular experience serving as a mentor to his Protégé as a good example of doing for others. The mentors will use other examples of people supporting others in need. In addition, the mentor will use some of his event mentoring time to have his Protégé join him or her as they volunteer at food-banks or homeless shelters and so.

The Protégé will willfully do his or her best to gain full appreciation for why it’s important to help and support others in need. The Protégé will pledge to and participate in at least three events that involve helping others in need.

Tell the story of the tee shirts that were sent to villages in Africa – not for any sports activities or anything like that – but to provide dresses to young children whose parents could not afford to buy dresses for their little girls
Tell the story of the man who collects used soap to send to children around the world – children who would otherwise not have a basic toiletry like soap to clean themselves
Discuss with the Protégé how good it makes one feel inside to help someone else in need

Saving

“to set aside, reserve or layby: to save money”

The Mentor will play an active role coaching and teaching his Protégé the concepts of saving money to be used in the future. The Mentor will continuously stress the profound importance of saving money and share with the protégé ways in which money that is saved can be used in the future i.e. to purchase a car, to pay for college or to take care of a loved-one to name a few.

The Protégé will aggressively learn and appreciate the concepts and value of saving money. In addition, the Protégé will pledge to save a percentage of all the money he or she earns over a lifetime.

Provide meaningful examples of how money saved have been used.
Show example of how small amounts saved every day can grow to large amounts of money in future i.e. if a protégé saves $2.00 per day for five days every week, they will have saved $520.00 at the end of a year.
Teach the Protégé examples of how interest works
Teach the protégé examples of how investing in the stock market works
Teach the Protégé how investing in a business works

Sources:

My Brother’s Keeper Task Force Report to the President – May, 2014
Herrera, Carla, David L. DuBois and Jean Baldwin Grossman. 2013. The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles, Executive Summary. New York, NY: A Public/Private Ventures project distributed by MDRC.
United States Department of Commerce Report – Economics and Statistics Administration