teaching adults to be mentors

[Lisabob]

In my eyes, one of the greatest benefits of scouting is the mentoring relationships that can develop between our youth and adults who are not family members. I think we all agree that a good mentor can be a powerful force in a child's life.

 

So. How do you help your adult leaders to become great mentors?

 

Some of it is serendipity I think. Personalities that just click or shared interests. Some of it is inherent in people's temperment and interest in working with kids. But some of it must also be "teachable?" I've known people who want to be that great mentor but seem at a bit of a loss for how to do it. And I've known people who I think will become that great mentor because they seem to have that inherent base for it, but they're new leaders to the troop and need some guidance. What do you do in your troop (or crew or ship either, I suppose) to help people in these latter categories develop that potential?

 

And...how many of you see/use JASMs as mentors, and to what degree of success? We've got a couple of JASMs but I wonder if the maturity and knowledge of self that I think are probably part of a good mentor's tool box are typically well enough developed in an 18-19-20 year old?

 

I'll be interested in your thoughts on this.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Historically, in Homers Odyssey, Ulysseus entrusted his son to Mentor who was to be a counselor, guardian and guide while Ulysseus traveled the world. Mentors job was to help the young prince understand and embrace the difficulties that was to be his one day.

 

Today, mentoring refers to a relationship developed between an experienced person and a less experienced mentoree/protg. Mentoring may be informal friendships or formal mentoring with assigned relationships to develop newbees. The goal is to share good information, examples and advice.

 

These relationships can be developed between Scouts and between leaders. It is a great method to show others the way in Scouting. fb