Programs & Services > Mentoring
Mentoring
These committed individuals are not paid to be a part of our children’s lives—they chose to be. Working one-on-one with our youth, they model successful career and family lifestyles to provide a vision of a future—full of hope and possibilities. They make the unusual commitment to support and guide foster youth long after their "emancipation from the system" and into their early twenties, helping them learn real world planning and decision making skills.
The objectives of the programs are:
- To provide Youth Homes residents with healthy, successful, adult role models.
- To create opportunities for residents to learn about the importance of education, work and healthy family relationships in shaping their own future.
- To provide residents with another caring, listening adult in addition to the resources provided by Youth Homes staff.
- To provide residents with other opportunities for recreation and growth.
Youth Homes offers two kinds of mentoring programs:
House Mentors are matched with one of our residences. House Mentors work with the residence manager to identify projects - everything from an afternoon work party to doing minor repairs to helping plan a holiday party or a movie and games night.
Youth Mentors are matched, one-on-one, with a young resident of one of our houses. This can be something as simple as taking a walk, going out for ice cream or to the movies, or even inviting the resident along on a morning of running errands. The program is modeled on the Big Sisters/Big Brothers concept, and is designed to create one-to-one relationships between Youth Homes’ residents and adult volunteers.
If you are interested in learning more about the mentoring program, please call (925) 933-2627 or email mentors@youthhomes.org.