Mentor Guidelines

Mentoring for Success provides students with highly qualified and effective mentors who engage students in asset-building activities to build skills for school success, attendance, and problem-solving.

Mentors serve as positive role models and motivate students to become their best. They offer students a pathway to expand their life perspectives, overcome obstacles and build on their strengths to make positive choices and develop essential school and life skills. Mentors are not case managers or therapists. They are caring adults committed and skilled at building relationships with young people.

Responsibilities and Commitments

• Mentors must be SFUSD employees or Volunteers with the proper background clearance to work with students
• Attend mentor orientation and training session(s)
• Commit to meeting with a student weekly (at their school) for one hour for a full year including check-ins during the summer, preferably at a scheduled day and time
• Document student visits and activities in the Online Activity Log
• The mentor-student relationship is one-to-one. If a mentor is willing and available, he or she may mentor 2 students with the approval of the Mentor Program Site Coordinator
• Attend scheduled, monthly mentor program events planned at the school site
• Meeting with students off-campus is not a requirement and is not permitted during the first three months of the match. Any visit/activity off campus must have a signed permission slip from the parent on file with the Mentor Program Site Coordinator and documented in the Online Activity Log.
  • Personal vehicles may only be used to transport students with authorization and proper documentation; public transportation, walking, or bicycling are preferable.
• Maintain confidentiality. Mentors are mandated reporters and must inform the Mentor Program Site Coordinator or other authorities if they learn of anything that may pose any danger or threat to the student or someone else.
• Notify the Mentor Program Site Coordinator and mentee as soon as possible if you are unable to continue mentoring. A closure meeting will be facilitated by the Site Coordinator.
• Have fun!

“The most effective mentors offer support, challenge, patience, and enthusiasm while they guide others to new levels of achievement.” (“STAGES OF A MENTORING RELATIONSHIP” Baylor University’s Community Mentoring for Adolescent Development)