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You've set up a new mentoring organization and staffed it, but now what? Stephen is back this week to talk with Zach about the next step in creating a mentoring non-profit: finding the kids and volunteers to participate!
Show Notes
You've set up a new mentoring organization and staffed it, but now what? Stephen is back this week to talk with Zach about the next step in creating a mentoring non-profit: finding the kids and volunteers to participate!
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
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.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Hello, ladies and gentlemen, listeners of the You Can Mentor podcast. Zachary Garza is here today with his good friend, the murder dog, Stephen Murray. Hello. Today, we are continuing our series on operating and leading a mentoring program. I'm here with Stephen who is formerly our director of mentoring and is now the executive director of 4 Runner Mentoring Program.
Speaker 2:Today, we're gonna talk about the operations stage. So we talked the last couple weeks about the building phase. Well, now that you guys have the information that you need to know on how to build an organization, let's talk about how to operate 1. So, Steven, today, we're talking about signing up mentors, kids, and family. We're talking about recruitment, intake, sign ups.
Speaker 2:We're basically talking about now that you have the volunteers, now what? Right? You gotta onboard them, you gotta train them, you gotta do all of these things. So, Steven.
Speaker 3:Who are you mentoring?
Speaker 2:What is it exactly We got all
Speaker 3:these mentors. We don't have any mentees yet.
Speaker 2:We gotta figure this stuff out. Steven, just just just talk to the audience, man. What's going on? How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm great, Zach. I'm I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. It's good. It's good. We're we're just real professional here on the You Can Mentor podcast listeners.
Speaker 3:Do you want me to talk about my life?
Speaker 2:One more. No. I was just I I just felt bad because I was talking the whole time.
Speaker 3:Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So alright. Well, let's get right into it, Steven. Signing up Mentors Kids and Families. This is where you kinda start to intersect the real life needs of your kids and your families with the real life caring volunteers who have signed up with your nonprofit because they wanna make a difference, because they wanna join your team and impact their community in the name of Jesus. Tell me what you look for in a volunteer.
Speaker 3:Well, I I mean, I think, obviously, our greatest resource in life is time, and so find finding volunteers who are willing to give their greatest resource Mhmm. I think is the most important thing of all. I mean, if you're we've talked about this before that some of our mentors have 4 kids, and we're like, how in the world are they going to have time to mentor? And yet they do. Some of them are like our best mentors.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I I think it's it's not necessarily finding people who have the time, but it's finding people who will make time for mentoring.
Speaker 2:And I think that's a great observation there. Early on whenever I was starting out, I only looked for people who had time in their schedule. You know? Like, oh, hey. Here's a guy who's 24, doesn't have any kids.
Speaker 2:You know, he works from 9 to 5. But for the most part, he doesn't have much going on. This is going to be a great mentor. And then at the same time, I said, hey. If you're, you know, 38, you've got 4 kids under the age of 5, you're probably not gonna be a good mentor.
Speaker 2:And I did a lot of assuming. Right? But what I found out was, yes, your stage of life and things like that, those things do matter. But just like what you said, some of our best mentors are the ones who you look at them and you're like, how in the world do you find time to spend time with your mentee? But they do.
Speaker 2:And so I would say it's the heart. It's the willingness to prioritize making intentional time to volunteer. Whether that's a tutor, whether that's hanging out with our moms, whether that's hanging out as a mentor, you you just have to say, hey, this is important, and I've committed to this, and I'm gonna do it. And so Mhmm. I think that that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:So if you're starting out a mentoring org of, of course, keep in mind their schedule and things like that, but just know that sometimes the people that you think will be the best mentors aren't. And sometimes the people who you think are gonna be the worst, well, they actually are the best ones. So Yeah. You are just continuously surprised.
Speaker 3:I also I mean, I worked in the church world and and so volunteering it like, churches would not exist without volunteers.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And the assumption on for volunteers is that you have to make their job as low intensity as possible that it's just you give them as few things to do as possible. But in reality, the reason people volunteer is because it gives them purpose, it gives them life. And so when it comes to expectations of volunteers, the the goal is not to create these roles that aren't important, but, actually, to create volunteer capacities that will drive them, will give them a lot of activity and purpose. And so, really, the commitment level of a mentor is going to match the commitment level of the the role that you're giving. And so if if your expectation of a mentor is low, you're probably going to find, like, mentors who are low on the commitment side.
Speaker 3:And so if you have a high vision for what you want a mentor to look like, more often than not, you're going to find the people who are going to derive the meaning and purpose from what you're asking them to do. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And, I mean, obviously, you have to make ask that makes sense. You know? It's like, I want you to spend 7 hours with your mentee a day. You know?
Speaker 2:Like, that's probably not gonna work out. But, like, yeah, like, hey.
Speaker 3:It should be challenging.
Speaker 2:It should be challenging. And here's what I say after I'm like, hey. Like, here's our ask, man, is our kids are worth it. It's like our kids deserve you to spend time with them 2 times a month. Like, they deserve for you to keep your word.
Speaker 2:They are worth you doing what you say that you're gonna do. And so that that helps kinda that helps kinda frame it up. Yes. Time time is super important. Capacity.
Speaker 2:Just taking the fact that you said yes to something seriously, you know, being a man or a woman of, you know A woman. A woman of your word.
Speaker 3:That's so funny that we we only say man of your word, not woman of your word.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things about this crazy English language that, you know, like, there and there. There's, like, 6 different ways to spell there. I'm, like, continuously confused. But but yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, what else? Oh, yeah. Obviously, the most important thing is that they love Jesus. Right? And so they have to have a heart to disciple a kid through mentoring.
Speaker 2:But we, in our nonprofit, you know, we make sure that they are attending a church. We make sure that they're not only attending, but that they're submitted to someone at that church. You know, they're part of a small group. They actually go you know, whenever they sign up on the application, like, we ask them to put their church. We ask them to put someone who are nonprofit reference.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and we actually contact them because that's important, just that they're submitted to someone else besides us.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Those are usually my my favorite part of the application process for mentors is hearing other people talk about them. Mhmm. And and I'll even ask them questions of, like, when you think of this person who's applying, what do you think who who do you think they would connect with better? A high school student, an elementary student?
Speaker 3:And you'll learn so much about the people through their own relationships and even ask them for weaknesses. What what do they see in in these mentors? And, obviously, you want them to be supportive of them jumping in, but you also want them to be honest Right. About the people that are signing up.
Speaker 2:Well and and speaking of, you know, being honest, we we need to be honest with them. Like, hey. This is what you're signing up for. Like, hey. Here's here's what we do.
Speaker 2:Here's the type of kid that we serve. Here's some scenarios that you will probably find yourself in. You're not gonna set them up for success being, like, yeah, we're gonna give you a mentee, or you're you're gonna volunteer, and you're gonna tutor a kid, and the kid's gonna love doing his homework every day. And every time you show up, he's gonna, you know, be, like, yay. Hooray.
Speaker 2:My tutor's here. Like, that's don't don't paint a picture of something that is not.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But And the kids aren't saying hooray anymore these days.
Speaker 2:Yippee, father. Yippee, mentor. Yippee, father figure. Thank you. Thank you for showing up in my domain today.
Speaker 2:But and and and so, like, you cast the vision. Hey. There's kids in our community who need some support. You can mentor. You can volunteer.
Speaker 2:You can tutor. You have what it takes to invest. Come on and be a part of our team. Right? And then they're like, okay.
Speaker 2:I'll I'll be a part. And then what is the next step? Well, it it truly is us as the nonprofit. We we have to paint a picture of what could be. We have to give them the vision.
Speaker 2:Hey, look. Like, there will be times when it's hard. There will be times when it feels like you're not making a difference. But let me paint the picture of what the Lord's doing behind the scenes. I'm I'm gonna cast a vision of what we've seen the Lord do by using someone who is just like you.
Speaker 2:Right? And so it is our job to inspire. It is our job to cast vision. It it is our job to fill them up with hope of what could be so that they're heading into this volunteer role with a full tank. And then these are things that we've said over and over.
Speaker 2:It's our job as a nonprofit to keep them encouraged and to keep them equipped. And just equipped and encouraged, equipped and encouraged. Like, we we do need to call them and encourage them. We do need to call them and say, hey, I I know you're having a hard time with this kid, but here's what he told me. He told me that every time that you show up, you know, da da da da da.
Speaker 2:And then we do need to give them tools. Just like if you're gonna go be a missionary in a different country, you train, you have tools, you take a bunch of classes. Well, it's it's on us to do that with them as well. So Yeah. Steven, talk about the app so here's someone who says, I think I wanna volunteer.
Speaker 2:What are the next steps? You know, obviously, you have to have a website. We have our just why don't you walk us through that process, website, application, all of that stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, at a very basic level, people are hearing about our organization from usually current volunteers. And so we're we're consistently asking our people, who do you know that should be a part? So whether whether someone comes across our website or is referred to us, usually, there's some basic level of them understanding what the requirements are, but we have follow-up meetings. So I'll schedule a coffee.
Speaker 3:I mean, host host an interest meeting so people understand what's going on with our organization. But the the main desire at those initial meetings is giving them an overview of our organization, not just focusing on the role we're asking them to do, but seeing where it fits in to the entire process. It's a it's a 30,000 feet view of what we're trying to do Mhmm. And where we're trying to go. And at the very end, this is this is the role we're asking you to commit to.
Speaker 2:So how do you get people in the door? How do you recruit? You have a number of different ways to do that. Can you just kinda speak to that before we go into interest meetings and all of that good stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I I think if you're running a community organization and a faith based mentoring program, you have to get your door into the church. Churches are the place to to go to connect with new mentors. So if I I would say if you're a director of mentoring or you're the executive director of a mentoring program, you need to meet with pastors and and ask if you can meet host a lunch after service to connect with church members. I mean, we just met with a pastor for lunch, and we're sharing about what does it look like for us to partner with your church, develop some levels of commitment at a at a church level of saying, hey.
Speaker 3:You guys are invested in this community. We'd love to be a ministry partner. Churches are longing to invest in schools, but they don't necessarily have a plan or know how to. So your mentoring organization could actually be an answered prayer to a church out there that's looking to invest in schools.
Speaker 2:Well, in in, like, there are I mean, we talked about this in previous episodes. You just gotta go where the people are. So just this morning, Steven, we spoke at the Exchange Club of Lake Highlands. Right? There's potential mentors there.
Speaker 2:There's potential volunteers there. There's potential donors there. But it's it's churches, it's small groups. It's, hey, hey, go into a church and, yeah, see if you can talk from, you know, at at a service or things like that. But go into the small groups and just say, hey, can I meet with a small group a week?
Speaker 2:And there there's there's 15 potential, you know, supporters, volunteers. And one thing that we really focus in on is you've gotta have good, simple, clear material to hand out. So, like, we have a 1 page flyer. We have a brochure. We have a website that is easy to use and that looks professional.
Speaker 2:Because first impression, you know, all of your stuff needs to look professional because that makes you look professional. Mhmm. And it makes you look like you know, you know, you are you're an expert, even if you might not be. Right? Those those things matter.
Speaker 2:You know, having a presentation. Like, we have multiple PowerPoints on, hey, here's our history, here's what we do, here's all you know, here's what it means to volunteer with us. And just not trying to fit too much on there, but just giving them exactly what they need to know. And so
Speaker 3:yeah. Well and it's easy to undercommunicate what's going on in your organization or where the volunteer fits. An example, we had a meeting with all of our current volunteers, and at one point in the meeting, we shared our core values. I don't know what your definition of a core value is, but I would I would say that it's fairly foundational to your organization, and maybe everybody should know about it. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And half the room had never heard those core values. Yeah. There's a failure somewhere.
Speaker 2:It's on me. It's on me. I'll admit it.
Speaker 3:Hey. I'm the executive director now, so I'm gonna take responsibility for that.
Speaker 2:I like it. Yes. All of my failures are passed on to you.
Speaker 3:But, I mean, it's like a it's like a church not sharing their vision every Sunday. Mhmm. And you have new people coming in every week. And if you only have a vision Sunday once a year, how many people are completely unaware of of, like, why your church exists or why what god has called you to? And so as leaders in every one of these meetings, whether it's the 1st first day of someone joining the organization or they've been in for 5 years, what are those messages that you're continually rehearsing and reinforcing at every stage of the process of their involvement?
Speaker 3:And so that that first these kind of first touches are really important to give them the broad overview. So when they're 2 years in, they're not like, you have a women's ministry? What Yeah. Or they they don't know what's going on. And their whole point in becoming a volunteer is they want to be a part of something that's bigger than them.
Speaker 3:But if they don't know what that thing is, they're not going to stay envisioned for very long. Mhmm. I I will say that something we've argued about is, do you do interest meetings? Do you do coffees? How much of this is 1 on 1 connecting?
Speaker 3:Because that is you're making a huge investment for interviewing a volunteer, meeting with them for maybe 2 to 3 hours without even knowing if they're committed or they're in. Because, really, this application process is you selling the program to them, selling why they should be a part, and helping them understand why it would be beneficial for them to be a part and what fruit would come of it. And my take is that if if we're a mentoring organization, if we're all about relationships, then even if this guy does not become a volunteer, I want to make him an advocate, an evangelist for what we're doing. So even if he doesn't sign up, I still believe that those 2 or 3 hours that you spent with them, if if you sell the vision well, they could become an evangelist. They could connect you to somebody who might be the the volunteer that that could jump in.
Speaker 3:And so don't don't just bank on every person that applies to become a volunteer, but recognize the benefit of of those conversations and building those relationships regardless.
Speaker 2:For sure, man. All of that's good. And relationships are the best way to find new volunteers. You know, word-of-mouth is always gonna be the best. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You need to have a website. You need to have a brochure. You need to have a one pager. You need to have all of this stuff. But at the end of the day, it comes down to relationships.
Speaker 2:Relationships change lives. We should put on t shirt. Yes. Alright. So And if oh, please.
Speaker 2:So if if you wanna know about our application process, you can just go to our website, www.4runnermentoring.com, and you can just check ours out. We've got a bunch of different questions. Feel feel free to steal it.
Speaker 3:And here's my personal story. Zach came and spoke at my church, and so he gave a sermon. Which was awesome. I mean, I still have my notes from it. It was amazing.
Speaker 3:But, I mean, it literally did compel me to go to the website to apply to become a mentor. Now the application I mean, I think it took, like, 30 minutes to fill it out, and my refresh button got pushed. I don't know if that's ever happened to you while you're filling out an application. It's the worst feeling in the world when someone asks you to write out their testimony in a application, and then your page refreshes. And so you lose paragraphs upon paragraphs of how the Lord's moved in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I tend to make things harder than they need to be. So Steven has helped us in our application process. Just as for what you have to know, Don't make it 2 hours long because that's going to prohibit someone from getting involved. And so try to make it easy.
Speaker 2:Try to make it short and simple. Like, you just want them to get into the front door. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, it it is It's hard. In a sense, the application process has to be a funnel Mhmm. Or a filter for the right kind of volunteer you're looking for. And so I think I think the first stage is just, do you have the heart and do you have the desire to become a mentor?
Speaker 3:And the next stage is more, are you the right fit Mhmm. For the organization?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And here's exactly what we expect. Like, be crystal clear with your expectations. Like, hey. Do you know, you love Jesus.
Speaker 2:Do you want a mentor? Is your family okay with it? Yeah. Do you have support? Do yeah.
Speaker 2:So support from your wife and kids. Because if a guy wants to mentor but his wife is against it, it's just not gonna work out. So make sure that he has support, she has support. And then it's, can you do these three things? Can you, you know, show up twice a month?
Speaker 2:Can you contact mom? Da da da da. Crystal clear expectations. Talk about onboarding.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, it's it's hard to I can only speak from our experience of what we do, but something that I've heard as a standard practice from the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring is that mentors jumping in, it is it is recommended that they have over 6 hours of mentoring training before they are matched, and they call that preservice training. And so every mentoring organization should identify what are the things our mentors need to know before they are matched with a child. So that that ranges from recognizing signs of abuse in the life of a child, recognizing your safety policies and procedures of a very common one in the mentoring world is the rule of 3 that you're never interacting with a child alone in isolation behind closed doors ever. There's always someone else around.
Speaker 3:And so those trainings are are more policies and procedures, and then there's there's probably more philosophy of of of really what your organization stands for, what are your priority outcomes, where do you want what do you want to happen in these mentor relationships? And so at at first, you're establishing expectations. In the onboarding process, you're showing them how to fulfill those expectations. And if if you're not training them in how to fulfill those expectations, making it crystal clear, you're setting them up for failure. I'm sure in the future, we'll talk about ongoing support and ongoing training because it's not just, okay.
Speaker 3:I got 6 hours of training, and now I'm a mentor. Like
Speaker 2:I'm an expert.
Speaker 3:There you have to have a a process for ongoing training. And I think in the onboarding process, you establish this is not training, and now you got your certificate and you're good. Like, we wanna track with you and establish you as a mentor and help you to always be growing and and know that we're here to support. And so you kinda establish the expectations of not just this isn't just you mentoring. It's you growing as a mentor as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, it's kind of a lot like marriage. Like, you get married, most people do, you know what's it called? Engagement premarital counseling.
Speaker 3:You know? What's it called? Engagement? What's that what's that thing you do with the ring?
Speaker 2:What's that thing whenever you take a wife? But, hey, it's you know, like, I went through premarital counseling for 10 weeks. They talked about all these things. And, you know, after I was done, it wasn't like I was an expert. I just knew a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, now that I've been married for a while, it's like, and that that's that training was just the tip of the iceberg. Like, if I'm not continuously being held accountable, if I'm not continuously learning, if I'm not con continuously getting better, then ultimately, I'm kinda starting to get worse. And so it's like being a good mentor, just like being a good employee, just like being a good husband or wife, it it takes continuous education, which we will talk about next episode. That was a nice little segue, Murdoch.
Speaker 2:Nice. Alright. Well, so we do a interest meeting, and then we do a 1 on 1 interview.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And then we do sexual abuse training.
Speaker 3:Background check.
Speaker 2:Background checks.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Ministry Safe is
Speaker 2:is the best. Ministry Safe is the best. Man, we gotta have them on our podcast.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I actually think they're in the area.
Speaker 3:They're in DFW. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we match them, and then we figure out what they like. We assess what kids are in our program and what our needs are. Yeah. So it's it's as a nonprofit, you have to be crystal clear about what you expect from them, but you also have to be crystal clear about what you will provide them. Like, hey, if you know, here's here's our ask from you, but here's what we'll do.
Speaker 2:You know, we'll provide training. We'll take we'll have a conversation every 2 months with you guys. Those are all things that we'll talk about next episode. But talk talk about meeting the kid and the mom for the first time and all of that stuff. Talk about that, Steve.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, that's the last step in the onboarding process is the match, and and I'll just say that, really, your onboarding process is meant to encourage and equip the mentor to understand their role. It's also, just in terms of safety, levels, barriers that you're creating in your organization to prevent anyone who's joining your program with the wrong intentions from making it all the way through. And so don't be discouraged if your process is 10 steps. If anything, you're making it more difficult.
Speaker 3:The way Ministry Safe talks about it is that you're building a fence, and if your fence is higher than another organization, you're probably going to prevent a someone joining your organization. They're gonna go where it's easiest. Mhmm. And so just like a wolf is gonna go where the sheep aren't in in a an enclosed area with a shepherd. They're probably gonna go for the sheep that's Yeah.
Speaker 3:Out there somewhere. And so that's not it's not very encouraging. It's it's actually kinda depressing where our life is, where our world is right now. There are more there are more sex offenders than formal mentors in America right now, and that is just the reality. And so as as mentoring organizations, the onboarding process, we have to be the stern one that looks people in the face that says, if you're joining this organization for the wrong reasons, we won't find out.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And everyone else is looking for you.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:That's intense. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That was super intense. But it's true. You know? That's life.
Speaker 2:I do wanna go back to one thing that you said. Did you say woof or wolf? Was there a l in there, or was it like a dog barking woof? Woof. Woof.
Speaker 2:Woof.
Speaker 3:That's a hard word.
Speaker 2:Alright. Tough one.
Speaker 3:Gosh. That's a
Speaker 2:tough one.
Speaker 3:So the the initial meeting back to the the match, which I I remember when Zamari, when you were gonna match me with him, we met up at his apartment, and I think Kawan had saw you at a football game and said Who is Kawan? Kawan is Samari's mom. Thank you. She's awesome. She she is, yeah, an amazing mom, cares about her son.
Speaker 3:I think she saw you at a football game and said, I need a mentor for my son, which honestly is not always the case that that mom is just really advocating for her son to have a positive male adult in their life. But I kid you not, every mom feels that even if they're not able to communicate it. Right. And so, anyways, you just emailed me and said, hey. It's game time.
Speaker 3:Like, we're gonna go to this person's apartment. I know it's awkward. Just let me
Speaker 2:I remember that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, I mean was. We we sat down on the couch, and Zamari was the shy 7th grader who I don't even think said a word that first meeting. Kawan was excited but also scared. And so in these initial meetings, you just recognize it's awkward, and and no one no one's walking in completely confident because this is a new relationship.
Speaker 3:It's probably the first time this mom has had a formal mentor for her son. And so you just acknowledge that, clear the air. And in in this meeting, you just establish expectations. And so, I mean, it's very simple. I mean, you were just like, hey, Kawan.
Speaker 3:Well, my vision, I know Steven. I trust him. I I've trained him as a mentor, and I'm looking to, continue to invest in him. He's gonna show up in Zamari's life. He's gonna come to your his football games, and he's gonna get to know you.
Speaker 3:You're gonna get to know his wife, and just wanna know want want you to know that I'm really excited about this mentor relationship. Mhmm. And you don't have to share your life story. You don't have to figure out everything and have this long drawn out 3 hour initial meeting where you're taking notes. That's not how relationships work.
Speaker 3:And so in in these initial meetings, it's more of, hey. I'm so excited about this, and let's just be sure we're all clear on the same page what the expectations are for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and and, I mean, I think being crystal clear about the expectations is the main thing. Say, hey, mom, here's here's what we expect from you.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Hey, kid, here's what we expect from you. Hey, mentor, here's what we expect from you. Is everyone cool with all that stuff? Right? Yes.
Speaker 2:And just starting things out on on the right foot with crystal clarity. Communication is essential. And then, yeah, like, you know, as a facilitator, you, you know, y'all make sure that you encourage the mom, encourage the kid, say a prayer. You know, the first time that you meet is so important, but the foundation of that relationship is Jesus.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Is, hey. I am I am gonna build a relationship with you, kid, with you, mom, but the relationship is unto something more. It's unto a relationship with Jesus Christ. But, yeah, like, try to make it engaging. Try to make it fun.
Speaker 2:You know, it's a first date. Like, the first date, don't go in and be like, hey. My intentions are to marry. You know? Like, don't don't be that guy.
Speaker 2:Don't, you know, don't don't tell me your whole all of all of your junk on the first date kinda, you know, like I did back in college.
Speaker 3:Yes. I did I did have one initial match where I asked a mentor. I was like, so can you tell tell so and so just why why you're interested in mentoring? And
Speaker 2:It was like an hour later.
Speaker 3:Well, he he goes he goes, well, I just, you know, I just really care about fatherless kids, and and it it just kind of initially came off, like, really Mhmm. Weird. And so be careful in in those conversations about your intention
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Your intention of becoming a mentor. There there may be that's a good intention. Mhmm. But at the same time, what's communicated is like and the best initial matches that I've seen incorporated a basketball or a football Yes.
Speaker 2:You gotta be doing something. Yes. That just makes it so much easier.
Speaker 3:So and because a kid's not gonna know what to say, but he's gonna know if you throw a ball at him to throw it back.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well and and, like, mom. I mean, mom is entrusting you with her greatest possession, her son. And so we have to do everything that we can to make her feel comfortable. But
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I can put in the show notes, a list of things that we do at that initial match if it's helpful for for anyone who's, like, what do you do at those meetings? But, yeah, it's it's really important to establish expectations for each person in the mentor relationship, which that's the parent guardian, the mentor, and the mentee Yeah. And making sure that they're all clear what their job is. That's great, Steven.
Speaker 3:We we focus a lot on mentor training, but there's there needs to be emphasis on mentee training.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Like, knowing what it means to be a mentee. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Well and, you know, volunteer tutor training, hanging out with her mom training. I mean, you've got a training for everything. To recap this episode, we're talking about the operation stage. We're talking about signing up, mentors, kids, and families. We're talking about recruitment.
Speaker 2:This is where you combine the the need with the possible solution. We inspire potential volunteers. We make sure that they love Jesus, make sure that they know exactly what they're getting themselves into. We train them up. We equip.
Speaker 2:We encourage. We go find volunteers. We go to churches. We go where people are. We have a clear process, a simple process.
Speaker 2:We've got videos. We've got PowerPoints. We've got a way to tell the story of what we do and why we do it to inspire and to show them what it is that that we feel like we've been called to. And then we introduce that trained volunteer to the family, and we just make sure that everyone's on the same page, crystal clear communication, expectations, all that good stuff. And then you get out of the way and watch the Lord move, and it's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2:Do you know why it's gonna be awesome, Steven? Because you can mentor. That's why.
Speaker 3:It's all coming.
Speaker 2:And if you need more training, pick up our book called You Can Mentor. You can find it on Amazon, 5 star that mug. You can listen to our previous episodes. You can call us. You can go to our website and contact Steven or I.
Speaker 2:Steven, is there anything else that you would like to say?
Speaker 3:Developing trust in these initial steps of volunteers jumping in as well as families jumping in. This these first touches are huge. And so when when you're meeting with volunteers, you're developing trust. When you're meeting new families, you're developing trust, and and just know the importance of relationship. You can have all the lists in the world, but if if you don't care for people, they're not gonna stick around.
Speaker 3:So make sure make sure you're you're focused on people.
Speaker 2:Sounds like I've done a good job training you. You have. Thank you. Alright. Guys, you can mentor.
Speaker 2:If you found this awesome, share it with a friend. Go and rate us wherever you consume podcasts, and we love you. You can mentor. See you.