We hope that everyone has a happy holiday season!  Thank you for your participation and support during the past year. We have a lot to celebrate from the last year, including:

• he 3rd Annual 4-H Mentoring Weekend was held in Tustin, MI.  The addition of 4-H Guided Adventures sessions and a science workshop made this thebest 4-H Mentoring Weekend to date.
• We will soon celebrate the successful conclusion of the 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative.  Thank to all the members and site supervisors, past and present, who helped to expand mentoring in Michigan through this effort! 
• Michigan 4-H Youth Mentoring was selected to represent 4-H mentoring nationally at a 2010 National Mentoring Month event at the White House. A team consisting of a mentee, parent, mentor, county Educator and campus staff attended the celebration. Mentee Ryan Brott and mentor Andrew Knight were seated on stage with President Obama and the First Lady.
• A Wayne County 4-H Mentoring mentee, Sherron Dorsey-Walker, was one of 250 selected to have lunch with First Lady Michelle Obama after a mentoring rally in Detroit.  Numerous 4-H mentors, mentees, AmeriCorps members and staff attended this event. 
• Over 350 people participated in professional development webinars and over nearly 200 have attended professional development workshops this year.
   

This interactive workshop provides participants with an opportunity to experience and practice facilitating new training curriculum.  Attendance at Train the Trainer: Mentor Training is not a prerequisite for this session. The activities shared are great for pre-service training or on-going mentor training sessions.  Activity topics include:  Building the Mentoring Relationship, Setting Boundaries, Communication Skills, Youth Development and Cultural Competency.

Increasing Cultural Competency in Mentoring Relationships

When:   February 4, 2010

             9:30 am- 4pm

Where:  NorthStar Cooperative,3655 Forest Rd, Lansing, MI

Mentoring relationships often bring together individuals with diverse cultures and backgrounds. It is important to be aware of one's own values and beliefs when entering into a relationship with a young person whose experiences may color his or her world differently in order to move forward with a friendship based on mutual respect. This interactive workshop will begin with activities and discussion related to adultism, stereotypes, poverty, and cultural competency.  In the afternoon, we will move into a train-the-trainer format and share resources and curriculum that can be used when training volunteers, participants or staff members.

Register now!  Increasing Cultural Competency in Mentoring Relationships is session number 7040.

NEW:  Virtual Micro-course:  Matching, Monitoring, and Match Closure

When:   Begins on February 7, 2010

Be the first to experience the popular Matching, Monitoring, and

Match Closure workshop in a new on-line format. Participants will log in to the course a few times each week to view presentations, read materials, and interact with colleagues around the state. Log in at times that work for you! Participants will learn strategies for making and monitoring mentee-mentor matches, examine ways to support and recognize matches, and learn the importance of using a formal match closure process and ways this process can be structured.  The virtual micro-course allows participants to avoid the time and cost of travel while maintaining the group discussion and interaction that is vital to the learning process. You will have a chance to share your experience and ideas and learn from others.

Register soon!  Matching, Monitoring, and Match Closure is session number 7041.

Program Highlight: Key Mentoring

"Why is he sitting way over there?"

"Well, he is just a little more shy since everything here is still pretty new to him."

"Well maybe us kids could get him to come and participate with us.  He is really nice and if we're nice back, he will want to come over anyways.  I bet it will work."

Every Monday after school, the Key Mentoring program, a part of the Clinton County 4-H Youth Mentoring Programs, meets at Gateway Elementary School in St. Johns from 4pm to 6pm.  Key Mentoring is resource for 3^rd to 6^th grade students not only at Gateway but also at 6 other elementary schools in Clinton County.  The mission of the program is to equip youth with the knowledge and skills need to make positive life choices by matching them with an adult or teen mentor who will be a positive role model and support their development.  It is the heart-warming conversations like this one between a mentor and mentee that show this goal is in progress with the youth involved in the program.

The mentor set a goal-he had it in his mind to get the shy mentee to play with everybody else.  The mentor went over and enticed him to play a game of catch with a tennis ball with other mentees and mentors.  He did not make a big deal of it.  He simply meandered over, sat by him, and showed him the tennis ball in his hand.  By the end of that day's program, the shy mentee was playing with the others with a big smile on his face and laughter you could hear across the room.  He now has a place to belong and is actively learning how to develop friendships.  In witnessing this sequence of events, it became evident that positive growth is underway at Gateway.

For more information about Clinton County 4-H Key Mentoring, contact Candice Johnson at john2395@msu.edu or 989-224-5240.

Mentors--does your mentee need help figuring out their skills, what they want to do in life, and how to get there?  If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, you and your mentee should check out a new curriculum from the Mentoring Partnership of Long Island (MPLI) called Discovering the Possibilities.  The curriculum details a step-by-step way for you to assist your mentee in charting their own course by sharing information and activities to do together as a match, giving you the tools necessary to help make your mentee's dreams come true.  The curriculum is divided into three sections:  Exploring Careers-I "C" My Future; Preparing for College-I "C" My Options; and Building Character-I "C" Myself.  It is even free to download from the MPLI website!  Even though the curriculum is designed for eighth and ninth graders and their mentors, the information would be beneficial to tenth or eleventh grade mentees as well!

Visit www.mentorkids.org for more information.

January 17th

Instead of taking a day off, spend a day serving the community, either with your program or with your mentee.  If there aren't any events in your area, why not plan a service activity together?  A service activity can be as simple as picking up trash along the roadside or volunteering together in your community.

Thank Your Mentor Day, January 25th

Be sure to tell your mentees and their parents about Thank Your Mentor Day.  Many programs plan a group gathering to celebrate the day.  Many site-based programs work with youth to create cards or other tokens for youth to give to their mentors.  Other programs send a note to parents letting them know about the date and sharing some ideas to make the day special.  Whatever you do, be sure to thank the mentors in your program on January 25th!