FAQs

Begin by identifying current mentoring efforts in your area and consider whether your organization can partner with an existing, high-quality mentoring program. In order for a mentoring program to be as successful as possible, it’s important to invest in a long-term and serious commitment as a poorly supported mentor-mentee match often has worse consequences than if the mentee had no mentor at all.”

Consider the following tips before starting:

1) Be realistic: Mentoring programs should not be a mere "add-on" to an existing program. They are programs within themselves and require the support of dedicated staff members.

2) Understand the cost of mentoring: Each year, community-based programs spend an average of $1,114 per youth (P/PV, Contemporary Issues in Mentoring). Depending on the number of mentor-mentee matches you're considering, you will also need to identify the staff resources that will be required for matching mentors and mentees, training new mentors, and supporting existing matches.

3) Think small: Develop a small pilot project with less than 15 mentor-mentee matches. Starting small will help you refine your services without compromising program quality.

4) Utilize existing resources: Visit the National Mentoring Partnership's website (www.mentoring.org) to obtain valuable resources specifically designed for new programs or contact the Iowa Mentoring Partnership at mentor@iowa.gov to arrange a site visit.

In order to become a certified mentoring program through the Iowa Mentoring Partnership, you must fill out a certification application. You can find the form on our Program Certification page, along with much more information about the process and requirements of becoming and maintaining your certification. You may also contact us via email at mentor@iowa.gov to request a hard copy of the application.

The Iowa Mentoring Partnership works with Nebraska's Midlands Mentoring Partnership to put on a Spring training every year. There are also many helpful webinars available to listen to on MENTOR.

There are many benefits to having your youth mentoring program certified with the Iowa Mentoring Partnership. Some of those benefits include:

• Free or reduced price training (at least two per year in person), plus group training assistance via webinars and conference calls
• Opportunities to apply for funding from the Department of Public Health (Only IMP certified programs are eligible for their 4-year substance abuse prevention and youth development grants)
• Opportunity to fully participate in the Coaches Mentoring Challenge (benefits with this category include mentor referrals, local coach partnership referrals, matches featured in promotions/game day activities, ticket promotions, etc.)
• Ongoing technical assistance from the IMP staff to continue to develop quality elements of their program.

For more information, see the For Programs page.

State Mentoring Partnerships are focused on the following key priorities:

• Advance the quality of the local mentoring field by building relationships with new and existing mentoring programs and provide capacity building trainings and technical assistance grounded in evidence based approaches.

• Engage with a wide variety of public and private stakeholders to increase both the number of volunteer mentors as well as resources for the local mentoring field.

• Collect data on a regular basis to describe the impact of mentoring in the broader community and identify gaps in the range of services needed.

• Expand public and private support and investment in mentoring through public awareness and advocacy efforts that foster communities that prioritize quality youth mentoring. Mentoring partnerships have developed solid, field-tested solutions to some of the mentoring movements greatest challenges.

The Iowa Mentoring Partnership is an affiliate of the National Mentoring Partnership. The IMP certifies and assists youth mentoring programs across  Iowa. Certified, high quality mentoring programs are offered training opportunities, advocacy initiatives, and statewide marketing and media campaigns. IMP also works to build collaborative relationships between government, private, and public agencies to support of these local mentoring programs which are essential for strengthening families, communities, and the state of Iowa.