12 Ready-to-Use Mentor Training Activities

Mentoring programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) spend thousands of hours each year focusing on recruiting mentors, ensuring youth safety, and evaluating their services. At the end of the day little energy is left to create new and exciting ongoing training sessions for the program’s mentors. Yet, ongoing mentor training—delivered periodically as matches progress—is key to program success.

Because program staff are often stretched very thin and may lack the time needed to develop their own ongoing training sessions, this book provides topics and accompanying trainer instructions for 12 ongoing mentor training sessions.

Each session is designed to be offered during a one- to two-hour time slot. Session notes include preparation tips, delivery instructions, supply needs, print-ready worksheets and overheads, and resource lists. The sessions in this book can be used for small- and large group trainings or adapted for individual skill-building sessions with mentors.