Professional development and training
Elevate your impact with research-based, interactive training sessions for individuals, schools, nonprofits, and communities.
Why training matters
At MENTOR Rhode Island, we believe great mentoring starts with great preparation. That’s why we offer a suite of evidence-based, interactive, and customizable trainings designed to meet the needs of adults and organizations working with youth. Whether you’re a mentor, educator, program coordinator, or youth-serving professional, our sessions equip you with the tools, insights, and confidence to create strong, supportive, and impactful relationships.
what makes our trainings different
explore our training catalog
Audience: Mentors in a formal mentoring program
Time: 2-3 hours
This interactive training program provides participants with an introduction to mentoring and what to expect as a mentor. Topics like the qualities of a good mentor, communication skills, establishing boundaries, and appreciating differences will make it easier for mentors to navigate relationships with their mentees. This training is appropriate to introduce new volunteers to the field of mentoring and to refresh current mentors on best practices.
Audience: Adults already working with youth
Time: 2-3 hours
This training focuses on fostering mentoring mindset in the adults who have regular interactions with youth. Based on the Developmental Relationship Framework from the Search Institute, participants will learn the concepts and skills associated with being a positive, caring adult in the lives of youth. By being intentional about building relationships into the culture, youth will view staff members as an adult that cares about them as individuals. It’s this feeling of connection with a caring adult who is invested in them and their success that is the foundation of positive outcomes like increased attendance, interest and engagement in classroom learning and more positive peer interactions that mentoring provides to youth.
Audience: Everyone
Time: 2 hours
This training is designed to help adults develop the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are foundational to being an effective mentor. Building on MENTOR’s Becoming a Better Mentor resource (found on page 12-13), this workshop offers practical strategies and evidence-based approaches for supporting young people. Explore key concepts that place youth at the center, ensuring caring adults serve as true partners in their journeys.
Audience: Everyone
Time: 2-3 hours
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment,” says Carol Dweck the mother of invention behind the concept of Growth Mindset. In this training, participants will learn the difference between Fixed and Growth Mindset, how to identify and get over our own Fixed Mindset, and finally, how we help others, particularly the youth we serve, to learn and thrive with a Growth Mindset.
Connect-Focus-Grow:
Audience: Businesses and Supervisors working with young people or interns
Time: 2-3 hours
Connect: This content will offer tangible strategies and tactics to help mentors build trust and rapport with mentees. We will integrate a focus on cultural awareness and humility, equipping mentors with tools and the opportunity to reflect on potential biases that may limit success in mentoring relationships.
Focus: This content will provide mentors with tools and activities to leverage with mentees in setting goals and creating action plans to achieve those goals. We will integrate effective coaching techniques so that mentors are not directing the goal setting process with mentees, but rather creating a safe and structured space to reflect on and prioritize short and long-term goals.
Grow: This content will review effective practices for giving and receiving feedback as well as dealing with common challenges in mentoring relationships. It will equip mentors with useful strategies for cultivating and practicing a growth mindset
Audience: Mentor Program Coordinator’s
Time: 14 hours
Using the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring (EEPM), the industry’s nationally accepted best practices, MENTOR Rhode Island’s training staff will take participants through the processes needed to recruit mentors, achieve community buy-in, screen and train mentors, match volunteers and youth in meaningful and fulfilling mentoring relationships, and discuss issues facing youth today. Attendees receive a copy of the “How to Organize a Community Mentoring Program” training manual which includes all the lessons covered during the training. In addition, they will receive a “Mentor Training” manual as well as access to various forms and samples that can be tailored to individual mentoring programs. It also is the first step to the Assessment & Improvement process called, National Quality Mentoring System (NQMS) AND this training gives participants a chance to network with each other! New program coordinators get a viable youth mentoring program up and running. Professionals returning to the mentoring field and agency directors who are considering offering a mentoring program through their school or agency. Existing coordinators who want to revamp their current programs.
Audience: Adults working with young people
Time: 2 hours
The words Social Emotional Learning (SEL) have been tossed around now for a few years in the youth development field, but what exactly is SEL and more importantly, how do we implement it with our youth. In this workshop, we will go over the five main SEL skills that young people need and how we can help young people better develop these skills. Participants will walk away with concrete activities to do with young people to help foster a strong social emotional environment.
The Becoming a Better Mentor: Strategies to Be There for Young People is full of real-world advice and evidence-based strategies. It provides adults with tangible strategies to “be there” for young people and teaches them about the core skills, key principles, and critical practices of a mentoring mindset.
This training has twelve distinct modules that can be mixed and matched to meet the needs of the participants. Each module can range from 30 minutes to an hour long.
We suggest starting with modules 1 & 2 as that is the foundation that all the other modules are built off of.
1. Providing Emotional Support & Empathy
2. Practicing Cultural Humility
3. Making Room for Fun & Play
4. Attunement in Mentoring Relationships
5. Understanding Effective Online Communication
6. Facilitating Group Interactions
7. Working with Others in the Mentoring Relationships System
8. Honoring Youth Voice & Building Power
9. Building Critical Consciousness & Youth Activism
10. Goal Setting & Support
11. Effective Conversations about Behavior Change
12. Expanding Networks of Support
Audience: Everyone
Research with millions of young people shows the power of people from all walks of life committing to do what they can to support all young people’s success. By participating in this highly interactive workshop, parents, educators, mentors, neighbors, youth workers, and community leaders will understand the strengths and supports that are essential for young people’s success in school, work, and life, based on Search Institute’s research on Developmental Assets. Participants will also Identify qualities of individuals who play powerful roles in young people’s lives, discover opportunities in their everyday lives for making a positive difference and make personal commitments to take personal action to support youth success This workshop is the perfect way to build public will and engagement for your collective impact and other community-building efforts.
Audience: People working with youth impacted by opioid use or misuse
Time: 2 hours
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Prevention (OJJDP) recognizes youth impacted by opioid use and misuse can especially benefit from mentoring relationships. While this training will address a diversity of facets related to mentoring impacted youth, the following goals/objectives are common threads of the content. Understand the three main intersections of mentoring youth impacted by opioids: Youth at risk to use or in a space of experimental use, Youth using to a level of addiction and currently enrolled in and/or needing treatment, and Youth whose family/loved ones are using, addicted and/or have overdosed (fatal and non-fatal). Participants will also understand expectations for basic knowledge of mentoring best practices and concepts of trauma, understand how opioids and general drug and alcohol are addressed throughout the training, and understand trauma as both and/or: an experience that can ultimately lead a youth to use as a coping mechanism (I.e. historical abuse, neglect, bullying, poverty, etc.), the experience of witnessing a loved one, a friend, and/or a community struggle with and/or die as a result of drug use.
Time: 1 hour
This session is designed for mentors supporting youth in mentoring relationships. We examine unconscious bias that can impact our actions and relationships. We will equip mentors with strategies to increase your awareness and reflection of bias in order to practice greater cultural humility.
Time: 1 hour
This session explores how caring adults can use the ladder of inference to make well-informed decisions and avoid jumping to conclusions when interacting with their team members. This session will support caring adults in strengthening their self-awareness as mentors and then explore how we can enhance our cultural competence.
Time: 1 hour
This session focuses on key strategies for managing and optimizing your touch base meetings with your youth employee throughout the year, e.g. setting goals, reflecting on progress, and more. This session helps mentors to build a roadmap for evaluating communication, organizing their support of their mentee, and helping the mentee plan for success.
Audience: Teens and Young Adults
Time: 2 hours
Giving youth the agency to find their own mentors can be a valuable tool. The Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) training empowers young people to identify and engage potential mentors from within the constellation of caring adults already a part of their lives; past or present. In this training, we focus on how young people can develop social capital and create networks for themselves while building effective communication styles. This training is best suited for youth in high school and above
Have any questions?
Contact our staff for more information.
“Every subject was touched on in detail… a great way to understand and well put together.”
Staff from Providence Boys and Girls Club
Who should attend
Our trainings are tailored to:
Mentors (new and returning)
Program cooridnators and youth serving staff
Educators and school personnel
Business and corporate volunteers
Parents, caregivers, and community leaders
bring a trAINING TO YOUR TEAM
Most of our trainings are available in person, virtually, or as hybrid sessions. We work with you to schedule, customize, and deliver impactful sessions based on your team’s unique needs. Whether you’re looking for a one-time workshop or a professional development series, we’ve got you covered.
Ready to invest in meaningful development?
Let’s build your team’s capacity to mentor with confidence and care.