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You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
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Zach:You can mentor.
Zach:On today's episode, we got Susie Gallo from Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance. They do a fantastic job of supporting their mentors. They've got videos that they release every month. They have alumni come and talk about how to be a better mentor. They're inside the schools.
Zach:They have an eight year match, average match time. Eight years. That's a long time. So learn from Susie. Find out about what they do.
Zach:We're gonna talk a tad bit about recruitment. We're gonna talk about, compassion before comprehending and the the power of truly hearing your kid's story. We're gonna learn about how to recruit new mentors and how to help your volunteer mentors have the best experience possible. Surround them with as much support as possible so that they can have a great experience, and then go tell their friends so they can become mentors. Every one of their mentor coaches are licensed professionals.
Zach:They just do a fantastic job. So listen up. Check them out, and learn from Susie and her team. They're doing incredible work. You Can Mentor.
Zach:Alright. Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. This is your best mentoring friend, Zach, and I'm here with Susie Gallo from Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance. Susie, say hello.
Susie:Hello to the You Can Mentor podcast listeners. I'm delighted to be here with my friend, Zach.
Zach:Well, Susie, I'm excited to get to talk today about mentoring with you. And, what's it like today up in California area?
Susie:We are having winter, spring, and summer all in one day. It's raining. It's sunny. It's cold. It's windy.
Susie:It's warm. You know, just wait ten minutes and it will change.
Zach:Yeah. Right. Well, it is, 92 here in Texas. So I'm sweating right now as the two of us are having this conversation. Sorry if that's too much information.
Zach:So
Susie:It explains a lot, Zach, actually.
Zach:Right?
Susie:Yeah.
Zach:Susie, so tell us, tell us a tad bit about you and how you got into mentoring and all of the good stuff. Oh, wait. Wait. Before we start before we start in on the questions, let's talk about how we met at the at the mentoring summit in Washington DC. So I wanna hear not from my point of view, but from your point of view.
Zach:So From
Susie:my point of view. Well, here's full disclosure for your listeners. I've been stalking Zach for a few years now. I've been the executive director at the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance for five years and I kept coming across, you can mentor content and I kept stealing it for my program and for helping support our mentors here in Sonoma. So I kept coming across little tidbits and things that I just love.
Susie:Oh, I'm gonna use that. Oh, look at this. This is great. I'm going to put this in our new mentor orientation binder and was roaming the exhibit halls at the National Mentoring Summit this past January. And there's Zach's table and his books and all of his you can mentor material.
Susie:And I said, I am stalking you. Yeah, so I don't know how that felt for you, but that's sort of how I roll. And it was really fun to meet you in person finally since I've been stealing from you.
Zach:Well, I was so honored. I was like, oh my gosh, You're stalking me? That makes me feel so loved. So just anything that I have, I have learned from someone else. And so I I am so happy that anything that we talk about here on this podcast or in our books, I mean, there is nothing new under the sun.
Zach:And so, anything that we can do to help people mentor better and build relationships with kiddos. And so, that honestly was, Susie, one of the most encouraging things that has happened to me in a while because I personally don't know if anyone pays attention to our podcast except for my mom. Hi, mom.
Susie:Hi, life, mom. But
Zach:I was like, oh my gosh. There is this person who's mentoring in California, and she she listens to our podcast. This is a great day. So
Susie:I listen to your podcast. I follow your social media. I'm all over it. I love it. I got a new little sound bite from one of your podcasts recently and my whole staff are using it.
Susie:You know, this whole idea of seeing our kids as people not projects. Oh yeah. And everyone just went, Oh my God, where did you get that? And I said, well, stole it from Zach. You gotta help your mentor see these kids as people not projects.
Susie:They don't need rescuing and fixing. They just need somebody to be there. And I love how simple it can be. We just bring everybody back to those really simple concepts.
Zach:And so fascinating, Susie. Right? Because every kid's going through something different, and every kid has a totally different story. And so to actually see a kid and to once you encounter them, to be able to slow down and to to be able to just think to yourself, I wonder what this kid's going through today. And Mhmm.
Zach:I wonder what is going on, at at home. And I wonder what's going on at school. And just it just if if if you can empathize with them and put yourself in their shoes I mean, being being a person is hard. Being a teenager or being a kid, especially with some of the things that some of our kids have to face, I'm just like, man, how do they do it? And so if we can lead with curiosity, sorry, instead of judgment or anything.
Susie:Mhmm.
Zach:That is just gonna be the best chance of success in my opinion, honestly.
Susie:Alright. I love that we speak the same language. We talk often about compassion before comprehension. And last night we had, we have a monthly forum for our mentor volunteers. We have about 300 active matches currently.
Susie:So every month we try to put together a forum on a different topic. And last night we had almost 50 mentors show up for what we call a let's talk on building healthy relationships and setting boundaries. And I know we could spend hours on that subject, but just the curiosity piece kept coming up. Every instance is well, be curious, ask them what's on their mind. Ask them if they had a hard morning, ask them what's going on at home, you know, ask them how you can be helpful and supportive.
Susie:And it kind of reminds me of my favorite scene from the first season of Ted Lasso. Being a sports fan, I'm sure you know the scene I'm talking about where Jason Sudeikis is wagered on the dart game and everybody thinks he's gonna lose, but nobody's asked him if he's played a lot of darts and it's so fantastic because he nails it and he shocks the room. But I just think curiosity is so important in these mentoring relationships.
Zach:Yeah. A %. Compassion before comprehension. I'm gonna steal that from you. So You can
Susie:have it. I didn't invent it. You couldn't have it. I might have stolen it from you first.
Zach:Well, okay. So tell us a tad bit about yourself and how you got into mentoring, and then just kinda, paint a picture about Sonoma Valley and what you guys are up to.
Susie:Got it. Well, like I said, I've been with the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance now for almost five years, but I've lived in the Sonoma Valley for over twenty five. And this is a program that has been around now for almost thirty years. It is much loved by the community. And it's really making a difference here.
Susie:A lot of people listening, make they hear Sonoma Valley, they think, Oh, you know, the wine tasting and the fancy restaurants and the beautiful hotels, but there's another side of Sonoma and in our public schools, our kids are really struggling. Over 65% of our students are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. They often are living in multi generational housing situations, crowded, without adults who speak English in the home. So there really are kind of two Sonoma's and the mentoring Alliance is a bridge building organization because most of our mentors are retirees with means they have time. They don't need to work anymore.
Susie:And they're just the most kind hearted generous giving people and they want to support our kids who really are limited in their access to opportunities and experiences. So that's kind of, you know, our vision is that we're providing access to experiences and opportunities that help our kids reach their full potential. And that comes in so many different forms and how we do it is a long conversation. But it's all about building relationships and making sure our kids know that somebody really cares about them. And we do that by supporting their mentors.
Susie:We do that by creating spaces on our school campuses that are welcoming and show that we care about them. And we do that by providing enrichment opportunities for them. And it can be something as simple as an art class or a culinary class, or recently I'm struck by this one. We every year we have a miniature golf tournament. We have a really cute little mini golf course here in Sonoma and we usually have about 150 people signing up for our annual mini golf tournament.
Susie:It's total chaos. It's a blast. And two weeks ago, I interviewed all of our high school seniors who are applying for college scholarships with us. And I always love to ask them like, what do you remember most about an experience you had with your mentor? And I did 18 interviews and probably 15 of the kids said, oh, mini golf was my favorite program activity.
Susie:And I go what? Why? Like what is it about mini golf that really resonated with you? And one of our guys Chris said to me, my family doesn't have time to take me to play mini golf. My family doesn't have the means to pay for all of us to go play miniature golf.
Susie:And his parents are working two, three jobs, which is really common in our program and just getting to do something so simple and seemingly kind of mundane to us is the thing that creates that core memory for these kids. They're so excited about mini golf.
Zach:Well, I personally love putt putt. I mean, I I back in the day, I mean, I'm not gonna brag on myself, but I was pretty good. I would take my, girlfriends there whenever I was in junior high school and show off.
Susie:That was your move.
Zach:Oh, yeah. It was, hey. You, wanna come see me make a hole in one? So that that reminds me of the book, The Power of Moments by by, by Heath. And just I think it's so important.
Zach:What are the things that we're doing that can create those special things that our kids look back on and say, man, I remembered that. Right? Like, our kids might not re remember the after school. Our kids might not re remember when we talked to them about math, but playing putt putt, right, like, that's so kinda out there that they're gonna be 40. And when they think back of that one time that they had a mentor, they will say, oh, yeah.
Zach:And we get this. We used to go play mini golf. And so and so what a great opportunity for us as mentors to ask ourselves, what are the things that we can do that are just kind of just a tad bit different, kinda off, but will create something in our mentees' minds that they'll never forget. That's a great reminder. So
Susie:And it can be something really simple. You know? We live in such a beautiful place. Sonoma really is spectacular, especially this time of year. Everything is green.
Susie:The mustard seed is in bloom. All the fruit trees are blossoming, the hillsides are green. It's a really, you know, it's a perfect time to visit Sonoma Valley. Contrasting with that beauty is the surrounding area. You know, in an hour you're at Point Raise National Seashore in forty five minutes, you're on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Susie:But so many of our mentees don't get to experience those things. So when we take a group out to the ocean, over half of them have never seen the ocean before. We're going to a Giants game. Say, I'm just go Giants everybody. Zach, I'll take notes for you, on baseball.
Susie:But most of the kids who go with us that day will never have been over the Golden Gate Bridge before. And it's forty five minutes away. So sometimes we get caught up in the big things and creating these big, wow. You know, my mentee never did that before, but really, even though we love those moments because our matches are really in it for the long haul. It's all the little things that really build the relationship and build the connection and the trust and support the relationship.
Susie:So even having lunch every Monday with my mentee, we just hang out in the Mentor Center and we chat about her weekend and her brothers and she's got a new job at the local amusement park and it's pretty exciting. She needs help understanding her paycheck and where all the money's going.
Zach:Amen.
Susie:But yeah, I love the wow moments and I have so many stories, but we both know that it's the simple things that really added up or what make a difference.
Zach:And so so why I love Cinema Valley Mentoring Alliance is for a bunch of different kinds of reasons, but your commitment to authentic relationships. And the fact that you guys are inside of the schools that you guys have, you know, have a partnership with, with some of the schools out there. But more importantly, Susie, the intentionality with which you match mentors and mentees is really unlike anything that I've ever seen. So can, you just kinda share with us just how you set your your mentors up for success so that they are coming in with the best chance possible to create an authentic relationship?
Susie:I love that question because that's really at the core of what we do. We're recruiting volunteers from the community, people from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life. They're just people who have generosity in their heart and want to help a kid get through their probably most difficult years. And so when they come in to us, usually because they couldn't avoid me in the grocery store, that's where I get them. Hey Zach, how come you haven't signed up to be a mentor yet?
Susie:You know, people see me coming and they run the other way. Oh God, she's either going to ask me for a donation or she's going to ask me to mentor and both those things are true. So our volunteers come in to us and there's a pretty simple application background checks reference checks all that stuff you'll all do. But where the rubber hits the road is during our three hour orientation. And we cover so much in that time period about letting go of expectations and relationship styles and program support.
Susie:It's a little like drinking from a fire hose for our volunteers, which is why having staff at our school sites is so important to kind of reinforce all that messaging. Once they go to a school site to meet with the facilitator there, they have another interview and it's digging deep. We want to talk about Zach. We want to talk about why Zach is here today. What's motivating him?
Susie:Maybe what are your triggers? We had a mentor recently who grew up in a home with substance abuse and alcoholism. And we all know what that looks like that and what that can do to a young person. And she came in saying, want to support a mentee who's going through the same thing and at the orientation we were sort of okay, you know, if that's really what's making you tick here. Have that we have kids coming from all different types of situations, but then she went out to meet with her facilitator and they started talking about it and she realized that it would be so triggering for her to relive that through the eyes of a child that we changed course almost immediately.
Susie:And so that getting to know you as a mentor and what motivates you and truthfully what you're not up for is a big part of the onboarding. So that conversation is crucial. And then the facilitators who run our school sites, they typically have a waiting list of, you know, a dozen kids. And that's where the beauty happens because we get to say, okay, here we've got Zach, you know, and he loves sports and he loves his religion. He loves all these things about life.
Susie:He's got kids. What child on our waiting list is gonna make the strongest connection with Zach and that's where the magic really happens and I don't get to do it. I'm a little jealous that I don't get to do it. I really have to stay in my lane. But making that right match from the very beginning truly is often what that that first step is so important.
Susie:And it's often why our matches stay together as long as they do because our facilitators are absolutely brilliant. They have incredible intuition and skills and expertise, and, they do they just they work their magic.
Zach:So your average match is eight years. Mhmm. Eight years. Is, I mean, the average match lasts between, you know, a year and a half to, you know, two and a half years. And so Yeah.
Zach:In our conversation that we had earlier, I wrote down seven things that you guys do to support your mentors. And so I'm going to toss these out, and you tell me just, in one or two sentences, maybe more. You can do whatever you wanna do here, Susie. But tell us about the mentor coaching team.
Susie:Oh, yeah. So I let me back up just a little bit for the 30,000 foot view. So in our program, there's our admin team, there's three of us. And that's kind the motherboard of the organization. That's where the day to day stuff is happening.
Susie:Just keeping the lights on. Then out in our school sites, we have our seven facilitators who run those centers, and I call them like the boots on the ground, they're the face of the program, they're making the magic happen. Then there's our board of directors and I call them our brain trust. Like they're kind of back here strategizing, evaluating, just figuring out what we what's possible. And then there's this coaching team that you just mentioned and I call them the glue.
Susie:These are people who are retired social workers, LMFTs, former school administrators, and they're the ones who really provide the support for our staff, our mentors and our mentees throughout the course of the relationship. So first and foremost, we have what we colloquially call our Michael meeting. Michael comes in once a month and we have kind of group problem solving with Michael. And it's great because we learn from each other. We share wisdom and grow in that space with his guidance.
Susie:And it's huge. Then, you know, sometimes mentoring is not that easy. Sometimes we'll have a kid who's in a particularly challenging situation and we're not exactly sure the best way to support a child. And that's where the mentor can get one on one support from one of the LMFTs. And then we have a whole training program for our kids because they need to understand what their part in the relationship is.
Susie:They don't know, they're getting a mentor and they're in second grade and that sounds really great. And it's gonna be so fun, but what's their part in the relationship and how do they have accountability and understand what it means? So there's a whole program that all of our mentees go through once in elementary school and once in middle school where they get to kinda review why they're in it and what their responsibility is.
Zach:Now that's that's really awesome.
Susie:Mhmm.
Zach:I don't know if I've heard that very often. We spend so much time training the mentors. Hey, here's what you do. Here's what you don't do. But to set the kid up for success, hey, here's what a good mentee does.
Zach:Here's what a good mentee, says, or here's how to make the most out of this partnership. Here's what you can expect from your mentor. That is just a great way, to set the relationship up for success.
Susie:Yeah. Great. It's also a really great vehicle for a child to communicate back with their mentor in a way that they may not be comfortable doing verbally, because at the end they write their mentor a letter. And can I tell a story?
Zach:Please.
Susie:We a mentor. Her name is Eleanor. She's about four feet nothing. I think she's creeping up on 90 years old. She's mentoring a sixth grade girl and they were matched when she was in kindergarten.
Susie:And this woman, Eleanor was crawling through the play structure, keeping up with this girl from day one and they're beautiful. Their relationship is amazing. Her mentee Eva's being raised by her uncle who just exited our program two years ago. So she's being raised by a twenty one year old and her grandparents, but primarily, by her uncle and they were off to a rip roaring start, you know, it's all joy and rainbows and unicorns and then Eva hit middle school. She got a little sulky and a little withdrawn.
Susie:We've all seen the typical middle school kid kind of get a little angsty and she's not sunshiny. She's not outwardly expressive. She doesn't show joy or gratitude and her mentor is freaking out. I don't know what's going on with her. I don't know what the problem is.
Susie:She doesn't say, thank you. She doesn't even acknowledge me sometimes. Well, this little girl wrote her mentor a letter that I have sitting on my desk that will break you because her mentor has been so worried for so long about her. And in the letter she writes, I love having you as a mentor and I'm so thankful for our time together. Even though I don't always show it on the outside.
Susie:I yeah. And her mentor would have never gotten that letter if we didn't have this program structure in place.
Zach:And I think it's I know for me, I can get so caught up in my feelings and, you know, all this kid's not respectful and this kid know? And I'm just like, man, I feel like with almost every kid that we mentor, if, it's not that they're not thankful. It's not that they're not, you know, super grateful. It's that they don't know how to communicate it. And they, you know, they have their own stuff.
Zach:And so what a great idea to give them multiple avenues. Right? Like, I'm I have a hard time having one on one conversations, and I'm an adult. You know? I can't imagine how difficult it would be for kids 12.
Zach:But to hey. Like, here here are the multiple ways to say what's on your heart to your mentor. You can write them. You can text them. You can do this.
Zach:You can do that. I just think that that's really smart. So
Susie:Yeah. It was pretty sweet.
Zach:That's super
Susie:And I don't get any credit for this because I didn't create any of it. I'm just sort of in the driver's seat right now. But Yeah. Our founder is a woman named Kathy Witkowicke. She's my mentor, thankfully.
Susie:And I just, every day I'm thankful for how she put all the pieces together and responded in the moment to the feedback she was getting and mentors were getting frustrated that they weren't feeling gratitude from their mentee. But we always go back to saying kind of things that we know what we mean, but our mentors don't necessarily know what we mean. And we all throw around, you know, meet kids where they are, meet them where they're at. Well, what does that mean really? And sort of a structural sense.
Susie:And so we've started really talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And I think in one of your podcasts, listened to recently talked about mentoring kids from hard places and every single kid in our program is coming from a hard place. And on that hierarchy, a lot of them are barely getting their physiological needs met. They don't have access to, food and shelter and good healthcare and safety. They don't feel, they don't know where their next meal is coming from.
Susie:They might get evicted right now, you know, their parents could be deported at any minute. So it's really important for us to explain to our mentors, what we mean and how they can best support their child. Like don't expect your mentee to show love and belonging and self esteem and connection to the community, if their mom is making a choice between paying the rent and the electricity bill and groceries.
Zach:Right. Yeah. Some of our kids have a tiny bit, tiny bit of a bigger bigger issues to face. Yeah. So, but, I mean, I think that that all just goes back to the compassion before comprehension and truly setting our mentors up.
Zach:And, yeah, just, like, speaking to the, hey, what do you expect here? Because here's what's probably, you know, here's what's probably, the scenarios that you guys will face. And so that's a great, that's a great reminder, Susie. There's there's a couple more things here, and you talked about this earlier. But every month, you have a let's talk forum.
Zach:You have reminder kind of videos that you send out to your mentors. You have an alumni panel. I mean, all of those are, things that I have never heard of before. So do you think that you can just kinda talk about that for sec?
Susie:Too because last night, we had our final let's talk of the school year, and we had almost 50 mentors show up out of 300, which maybe for some people doesn't sound like a lot, but normally we have about 20. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves last night that so many of our mentors really want to grow and learn and get resources. But that let's talk forum is a monthly occasion for mentors to come together and learn about a particular topic. So, in the fall we do let's talks on, you know, the middle school brain and what's happening in their developmentally, what to expect when they get to high school with the bell schedule changes and the electives and the extracurriculars. And then we usually do we'll go around to our nonprofit partners.
Susie:So in January, for example, we had all of our mentors go with us to another local nonprofit called the Laloux Center and they provide a lot of support and direct services for our Latino population. So that was an opportunity for us to really get some guidance on how to approach this whole immigration thing. Where are the resources? What to do, what not to do? What the school district is asking families to do to get ready?
Susie:Documentation of, you know, assets and bank accounts and all of that sort of thing. So last night was about building healthy relationships and setting appropriate boundaries. And it was so great because we touched on so many different subjects really driven by what the mentors were saying was hard for them. And, you know, we're not an academic program, but somehow all of our mentors are caught up in their mentees achievement academically. And so we get to take that opportunity to say, it is not your role as their mentor to nag them about their grades and studying for a test and getting their homework in on time.
Susie:The more you do that, the more they're going to withdraw from the relationship. And we've seen it. We know that's what happens. So that was great because I think there were some questions that were planted just to kind of say like, hey, we know this is what you're all thinking and we're going to use this opportunity to set the record straight. But a big one is understanding the family dynamic.
Susie:And I think that goes back to the hierarchy of needs as well. We really don't know what's going on within these family units. And we, you know, compassion before comprehension, it's so easy to judge, so easy to judge and say, I don't know how they live like that, or, you know, who would feed their child that kind of food, and who would let their kids stay up that late, and you know, we're very quick to use our own experience and our own personal lives as a measure of what's good and what's right. And it's just not really helpful in any of these instances. Can I tell you another story?
Susie:So we had a mentor a few years ago who has a backyard pool and she wanted to be able to have her mentee and her friends and her siblings to come over and swim, but her mentee didn't know how to swim. So the mentor said, I'm going to sign her up for swimming lessons and I'm going to be the hero. I'm going to teach this girl. I'm going to make sure she learns how to swim. So it's a five day swim lesson series and day one, the mentor arrives at the girl's house to pick her up and rings the doorbell thinking some parents gonna appear and want to talk to her and tell her how great she is.
Susie:And she rang the doorbell and the door opened just wide enough for her mentee to kind of squeeze out. And then the door was closed right behind her. And the mentor kind of went like, woah, you know, what just happened there? No, thank you. No eye contact, no acknowledgement of what I'm doing here.
Susie:And that went on for the next few days to the point where the mentor just sat in her car and honked the horn and is sort of getting irritated. Like what, you know, is anybody gonna say, thank you. I'm taking time out of my busy life to do this amazing thing. So it's now day five and the mentor sitting outside in the house waiting for her mentee to come out and her car windows down and she feels a hand on her shoulder and she turns and it's her mentees mom saying gracias gracias. So the mentors feeling like, oh, well, of course, you know, you're welcome.
Susie:It's my pleasure kind of thing and thinking to herself. Right? They go to the swim lesson drops her mentee off. Now she's water safe. She can come swim in her backyard pool and the mentor goes home and two minutes later, the phone rings and it's her mentee saying my mom would like to invite you for dinner to say, thank you for taking me to swimming lessons this week.
Susie:I get choked up when I tell the story, the mentor dropped everything raced back over there and the mentees mom had a spread to feed an army all for the mentor just to say, thank you. So the whole week, the mentors making judgments and assessments and she has no idea what's really going on inside that mom's head behind that closed door. And I love that story for so many reasons because we all do it.
Zach:All of us do do it. I mean, that that is a good story. Man, Susie, you are a great storyteller. My friend. Good job.
Susie:It's my Irish Italian Catholic heritage. I I can spin a yarn.
Zach:That's great. Okay. So we talked about mentor support, and the last thing that I wanna touch on is just, and you kinda talked about this a tad bit, but recruiting mentors. Right? Like, we talked about how you guys have a mentor outreach team.
Zach:We talked about your story about the coffee cups, and then just how your best recruiters are your, the ones who are currently mentoring. But yeah. But just anything that you would, care to share with us on how to keep and find and maintain good mentors?
Susie:Yeah. I mean, existing mentors landslide, number one source. I I think over 60% of our new mentors come to us because a friend, a neighbor, a family member has said, Hey, you know what? You've got time. You really ought to consider doing this.
Susie:So we mobilize our current mentors as recruitment weapons and we throw a couple parties every year for them. We're really fortunate that we have business owners in the valley who want to help us do that. So just a few weeks ago, were out at one of the most beautiful wineries, admiring the spring blossoms, drinking beautiful wine and socializing. And it's an opportunity for our mentors to bring a friend and learn about the program. So that's a big one, you know, making sure our mentors feel acknowledged and supported and they get gratitude from us in that environment.
Susie:The coffee sleeves was a really great idea and it's something our founder did many years ago, but we hadn't tried it in a while. It was really fun because we had these little, you know, those insulated coffee sleeves that you get to throw away when you get coffee to go. We had six or seven local coffee shops agree for the month of January, National Mentoring Month, to every cup of coffee they sold, put it mentoring coffee sleeve on it and they were bright yellow and they had our QR code and our phone number. And there was no pun intended, but there was kind of a buzz about it. I was getting text messages from my friends saying, oh, look at my coffee this morning.
Susie:This is such a great idea. And we can't always measure the success of those initiatives directly. Like we don't know how many people decided to become a mentor because their coffee had a mentoring alliance sleeve on it, but it raises awareness in the community. This is a small place, but just making sure we are constantly reminding people that we need more volunteers. Kids are waiting.
Susie:Kids are coming in and asking our staff. Did you find me a mentor yet? When am I gonna get to meet my mentor? So it's just another way to remind the community that we need their support. So those are big initiatives.
Susie:Last year, we had a contest for our mentors to see who could recruit the biggest number of mentors. And then we sent them out to lunch at a local restaurant with their mentee as a reward.
Zach:That's awesome.
Susie:Just trying different things and keeping it fresh and never saying no to anything. That's my motto.
Zach:That's great, Suvi. Well and and just like the best way to get mentors telling their friends about mentoring is to give them a fantastic experience. And this kinda goes back to how you match students. It goes back to the support with the mentor coaching team, with you sending them, you know, like, hey. Here's a video each month to kinda help you become become a better mentor.
Zach:It starts with those let's talk forums. They they feel like they're making a difference. They feel like they matter because you guys celebrate them through social, kind of parties and things like that. And so, I mean, if you focus on equipping and encouraging the mentor and setting them up for success with the mentee, that's gonna give them the best experience possible, and then they're gonna wanna go and share that with all of their buddies. So awesome work.
Susie:Absolutely. And it takes time. Like, patience is such a big part of the journey. Just remembering that you're a stranger coming into this child's life and you've got to give the relationship time to build and grow. Can I read you a poem?
Zach:Yes, please.
Susie:It's very short, very short little poem. This was written by a fourth grader in our program named Sandra. She wrote it to her mentor, Karen. And the title is My Friend Karen. When I first saw you, I was afraid to talk to you.
Susie:Once I started to talk to you, I was afraid to be your friend. After I talked to you and became your friend, I was afraid to trust you. Now that I talk to you and became your friend and trust you, I'm afraid to lose you.
Zach:Dang. Right?
Susie:I mean, that's over the course of a long period of time. And at the very beginning, mentoring can be really hard because you've got to give it time and you've got to let the child lead. And if mentors can do that, they're on their way. We've got the rest of it covered, but you've got to show up in the beginning, understanding that this is notmatch.com for kids.
Zach:Good stuff, Susie. Anything that you would care to say before we sign off and how can people get ahold of you if they would like to learn more?
Susie:Yes. I I'd love to hear from from folks out there. Our website is SonomaMentoring.org. Social media is a great way to check us out. We're on Facebook and Instagram.
Susie:My email is susie, s u s I e, sonoma mentoring dot org. Feel free to email me and I'm happy to share any resources we have in our program, but truthfully your listeners are already doing what needs to be done to kind of equip themselves for supporting kids. And I just really appreciate your, wisdom and the compassion that you present in all of your programs. So I'm going to continue to steal from you. I'll let you know what I steal next, but I love your article, what showing up says, and I love seeing kids as people, not projects.
Susie:So I've learned a lot from you, Zach, and I think you're doing great work.
Zach:Thank you, Susie. It's very kind of you. And thanks a lot for hopping on and telling us all of these amazing stories and trying to make me cry and all of those good things. So very, very thankful for you. But thank you so much for tuning in to the You Mentor podcast.
Zach:I hope that you guys were encouraged today, and, you picked up a couple couple tips from Susie. Remember this, You Mentor. Thanks for tuning in to the You
Zach:Can Mentor podcast. Give us that five star rating and share this podcast with your mentoring friends. Learn more at YouCanMentor.com.
Zach:Thank you.