2nd Half of Fiscal Year 19. The Mentor Coordinator retired about half way through the second half of the fiscal year. Typically this person would conduct the Satisfaction Surveys and meet with mentors to ensure program deliverables were being met. The coordinator still had difficulty reaching the targeted popultion, even with providing the socials. The youth that attended were either too young to be considered, or did not want to become involved in the mentoring program.

Action plan: All new measures are proposed for FY 20, and at-risk youth will be considered in addition to opportunity youth as the targeted popultion. The marketing plan has been dramatically improved, and CommUNITY Mentoring is soley responsible for their own recruitment and marketing the program. The program is completing getting revamped for FY 20. The beginning of FY 20 a new CommUNITY Mentor was hired. This program has already provided the current mentors with an evidence-based training on Motivational Interviewing. 

At least 10 mentors and 10 opportunity youth will be targeted for services through the CommUNITY Mentoring program sponsored by Character Counts!  Although CommUNITY Mentoring has been providing mentoring services in the county for over a decade, the emphasis will change to target opportunity youth beginning with FY 18. 

Using the “Grads of Life” mentoring and business engagement approach, the CommUNITY Mentors will be matched with young adults ages 16-24 and assist them in building soft skills (social, communication, self-control, self-concept, higher order thinking) to maximize their employment potential.  The Grads of Life model seeks to change perceptions employers have of young people with atypical resumes. Grads of Life provides free web-based tools to connect leading employers to employment pathways, including mentoring, school-to-work, internships, and hiring.  The Mentoring Coordinator, who has an office in the Kramer Center, in Centreville, will become trained in the Grads of Life approach and will set up training opportunities for perspective mentors.  Mentors will be recruited from the community, and after training, will be matched with opportunity youth. They will be in contact no less than weekly with their mentee.  

Meanwhile, the CommUNITY Mentoring office will facilitate the model of multiple pathways by launching the 100K Opportunities Coalition to engage a wide variety of employers and business owners, along with the Workforce Investment Board, in a process of identifying employer needs and opportunities to engage youth in training, internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, and job mentoring.   Employers will be provided with resources such as toolkits, employee retention strategies, hiring processes, and connection to the QAC Collective and other related partners.  While 10 young adults will be engaged in mentoring, it is hoped that an additional 10 adults will be matched with an employer utilizing these strategies in FY 18. 

The CommUNITY Mentoring program, because it is sponsored by Character Counts!, has over a decade of experience in successful marketing and outreach.  Even so, this strategy will be reliant on the Chesapeake Helps! dedicated marketing and outreach plan accessing public agencies, non-profits, small/large businesses, and community groups to recruit participants in QAC Collective strategies.    

FY19:

CommUNITY Mentoring with 100K Opportunities Coalition is a newly funded program in FY18; therefore, there is limited data on performance measures of effectiveness. During the first half of FY18, the CommUNITY Coordinator was focused on creating essential components of the program. New mentors had to be recruited, trained and have required background checks completed. A total of 8 mentors were recruited from the community to serve the program.  The mentors are part of a team of at least three mentors for every mentee. There is a lead mentor who predominantly visits with the mentee, and is the mentee's point person. At least one mentor contacts the mentee weekly.

The Casey Life Skills checklist is used throughout the mentoring process. Addressing soft skills needed for success, the checklist is initiated during the first visits and reviewed quarterly for accomplishments or adjustments required.

The CommUNITY Mentor Coordinator utilizes the 100K Opportunities Coalition to engage a wide variety of employers and business owners, along with the Workforce Investment Board. The Coordinator identifies employer needs and opportunities to engage youth in training, internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, and job mentoring. Employers are provided with resources such as toolkits, employee retention strategies, hiring processes, and connection to the QAC Initiatives and other related partners.

CommUNITY Mentoring is working on creating a new marketing strategy for FY19 to serve more eligible opportunity youth. Once the marketing strategy is complete, CommUNITY Mentoring will determine gaps and establish a program-specific marketing plan for FY19.

The target population is Opportunity Youth, ages 16-24 who are not enrolled in school or not working. 

First Half of FY 19: CommUNITY Mentoring program has had difficulty in reaching their targeted population; therefore, some of their performance measures are low. They have continued to market and have started new strategies of creating a meeting place for disconnected youth, CommUNITY Mentoring had two socials thus far. 

Only one mentee has reached the point of receiving a pre and post (Casey Life Skills) survey. 

Second Half of FY 19: CommUNITY Mentoring Program has continued to have difficulty reaching the targeted population. The socials have had a few youth attend; however, none decided to become part of the mentoring program. They continued to market to the young adults, but did not aquire any new mentees. There was one mentee involved in the second half of the Fiscal Year. He has had remarkable results, and has even enrolled into the local community college. They have worked on his soft skills. He was able to get a car and is now receiving much needed dental services. Two mentees have since moved from the area.