Start Something ™ Enhanced School-Based Mentoring Affinity Group Leadership Discussions April 2012 ™

Start Something ™ Our premise: School-based Mentoring is an important agency program that can help agencies become educational leaders and serve youth intentionally in their community. By embracing many practices common to CBM programs, Enhanced School-based Mentoring (ESBM) is an effective way to provide mentoring in schools. ESBM can be an effective tool to demonstrate our commitment to be a learning organization and to employ evidence-based programs.

Start Something ™ Does school-based mentoring (SBM) continue to provide opportunity for positive impact? Answer: b Recent meta-analysis of mentoring programs and both PPV studies found that school-based mentoring has the same level of impact as community-based mentoring. In fact, SBM programs may be better able to produce academic outcomes Choose the best answer: a.SB impact < CB impact b.SB impact = CB impact c.SB impact > CB impact Source: DuBois, et al. “How Effective Are Mentoring Programs for Youth?“ 2010, Herrera, et al., 2007

Start Something ™ The national ESBM pilot demonstrates that we can improve our SBM impact Demonstrated potential to improve SBM: percent of matches carrying over from one school year to the next was 56% in pilot vs. 40% in PPV study Effective SB programs look more like CB programs 2007 National SBM Impact Study PPV study of SBM finds positive outcomes in first year that are not sustained beyond that year Longer matches and closer relationships are important for outcomes National ESBM Pilot We have an opportunity to expand our impact in SBM by implementing tested, evidence-based practices

Start Something ™ The perspective from ESBM Pilots How has ESBM affected your agency’s relationship with your school partners? What have you seen in terms of outcomes from children served by ESBM at your agency?

Tool #1BOS Start Something In the ESBM pilot, several practices surfaced as important to long, strong matches ™ Commitment 12 month match commitment Program structured to encourage matches to last over two school years Pre-match training for volunteers Collaboration Deepened school partnerships Partnerships that can supply 12 month volunteers Littles involved in activity selection Connection In-depth child interview Parent engagement Summer and holiday match communication 1 to 1 match interactions High quality contacts outside of program time Increased match support contacts

Start Something ™ Build strong school partners, with clear roles and MOU Partner with volunteer-rich organizations, setting expectation of minimum 12 month involvement Recruit for minimum 12 month commitment with summer contact Set expectation for one-to-one match interactions Reinforce and plan for minimum 12 month involvement Carefully screen, assess, and train Bigs for child safety Engage parents Match based on expanded input and common interests Provide frequent, regular contacts with all participants Make contacts outside of program time and provide opportunity to listen to, support, and coach Encourage one-to- one interaction Encourage summer and holiday contact Partnership Recruitment & customer relations Match support Enrollment & matching Some of these practices may already be standard in your SBM; others require change

Start Something ™ These changes to your program practices raise strategic questions for your agency Program capacity Sustainable resources Leadership How can you lead change for your staff? How can you leverage this as an exciting opportunity to enhance your impact through evidence-based practices and attract more resources for SBM? What balance of SB and CB matches will optimize your community impact and your efficiency?

Start Something ™ Questions? Comments?

Start Something ™ Our premise: School-based Mentoring is an important agency program that can help agencies become educational leaders and serve youth intentionally in their community. By embracing many practices common to CBM programs, Enhanced School-based Mentoring (ESBM) is an effective way to provide mentoring in schools. ESBM can be an effective tool to demonstrate our commitment to be a learning organization and to employ evidence-based programs.

Start Something ™ Next Steps Following this webinar, you will receive a similar powerpoint slideshow that you can use to facilitate a discussion among your staff or leadership team If your agency would like to learn more about the nuts and bolts of ESBM, please have your Program Director plan to attend a webinar in May (dates and times TBA). Support for agencies to implement ESBM will be provided by Marc Wheeler with additional tools and materials through the Agency Resource Center.