Mentor Screening and Youth Safety

Session 2: 2:30-4:30 (2 hour workshop)

This presentation will focus on the recommended tools and approaches from the resource SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations that many programs already use in screening and assessing their volunteers. If you have attended a previous SAFE training, you will have the opportunity to delve deeper into how to use both subjective (impressions from interactions) and objective (records, written application, online profile) components to make the best decision. 

If you have never attended a SAFE training, you will learn about what is recommended and why (though it is suggested that you have a good understanding of the mentor screening process prior to attending) and discuss options for background checks.  Research gathered in the writing of the Mentor Screening and Youth Protection chapter for the 2nd edition of the Handbook on Youth Mentoring, scheduled for release in 2012, will be also reviewed. 

This workshop will present the mentoring field’s research and best practices in regard to ensuring that selected mentors are committed and effective. Mentoring is not a good fit for everyone, especially in regard to the ability to develop a positive and stable working relationship over time with a young person. Positive characteristics that lead to the most effective long-term mentoring outcomes will be presented, along with red flags and warning signs to look for in identifying potential mentors who have a higher likelihood of early match terminations and/or negative mentoring outcomes.

Intended Workshop Audience: All Audiences

Presented by Sarah Kremer, Program Director at Friends for Youth, Inc.

Sarah Kremer is Program Director for Friends for Youth’s Mentoring Institute and Board Certified Art Therapist. She received her Master’s in Art Therapy from SAIC and worked with adolescents in mental health, probation, school, and mentoring programs. She authored the Mentoring Journal. As training consultant for CARS, NMC, and MENTOR, she draws upon her knowledge of adolescent development, volunteer screening, therapeutic treatment, art-based directives, evaluation, and mentoring to provide interactive workshops on Recommended Best Practices.