Two weeks until all of your little mentees start school. Let the countdown begin! This is going to be a weird start to the school year. There’s a lot of new information being shared with your mentee and their family. Don’t be surprised if they need a little extra support processing it all and getting themselves organized.
*Just a friendly reminder – please be mindful of Dane County’s face mask order. If you are spending time indoors with your mentee, be sure that you’re both wearing a mask (We have some if you or your mentee need one). If you’re outdoors, please remain cautious and smart about your interactions with each other.
Don’t forget to follow us and tag us on social media! Look for IntentionalMentoringMadison on FB, Instagram and Twitter!
Challenge for the week:
For August, the challenges will center around the theme of Friendship. This week’s challenge is to talk to your mentee about what it means to be a good friend. Some things that make a good friend are:
- Remembering important things (birthdays, accomplishments, etc.)
- Being reliable
- Doing kind things for one another and using kind language
- Helping out when a friend is sad or has a problem
- Spending time together
- Having fun with one another
A few ways you could teach your mentee about what it means to be a good friend are by role playing, setting a good example, reading books about friendship or watching movies about friendship. As always, talk, question, listen, challenge and encourage your mentee while participating in any activity and have fun!
BONUS CHALLENGE: August is Advocacy Month and, according to MENTOR, Members of Congress make strong commitments to mentoring and youth development during this month. YOU can help the cause by CHOOSING to advocate on behalf of a number of legislative issues including:
- The OJJDP Youth Mentoring Grant and the importance of federal funding for mentoring.
- The Mentoring to Succeed Act to provide young people with trauma-informed care and mentoring that supports their emotional and education growth and creates critical workforce and career exploration opportunities.
- Efforts to provide emergency and long-term funding to address the ever-growing gap in access to technology and reliable Wi-Fi for students.
TIP of the WEEK: Your mentor peers and your coach aren’t just meant to support you once per month. Have you swapped phone numbers and/or emails with the other mentors in your group? If not, go for it and then make an effort to reach out when you are faced with a challenge, need a little encouragement or want to share an accomplishment. Also, don’t forget how valuable your advice is to other mentors in your group! Take the opportunity to share about your experiences and offer yourself as a resource. You are not meant to mentor alone and you certainly aren’t meant to keep all of the wonderful things you’re doing a secret. What you do matters, the questions you have matter and the advice you can offer matters.
We love seeing photos of you and your mentee spending time together! Please share them with us via your coach or using the hashtag #intentionalmentoringmadison
Mentor Coaching Group Meeting Dates:
MARILYN: Tuesday, August 25th 7:00 – 8:00 pm marilyn@intentionalmentoringmadison.org
VAL: Tuesday, August 11th 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. val@intentionalmentoringmadison.org
ASHLEY: Thursday, August 20th 7-8 a.m. ashley@intentionalmentoringmadison.org
RYAN: Monday, August 3rd 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Ryan@intentionalmentoringmadison.org
Upcoming Events to Note
- First day of school – September 8th!
- There are a lot of cool and FREE events at the Dream Bank on E. Washington St.. Check out the AmFam Dream Bank site for more info and to register.
- For a listing of local events checkout www.MadisonWithKids.com
- Free Library Events/Activities: Fitchburg Events Calendar Madison Events Calendar
- For Orchard Ridge events check Orchard Ridge Calendar
- For Toki events check Toki Calendar
- For Sennett events check Sennett Calendar
- For Cherokee events check Cherokee Calendar
- For Blackhawk events check Blackhawk Calendar
- For JMM HS events check Memorial HS Calendar
- For West HS events checkWest HS Calendar
- For La Follette HS events check La Follette Calendar
If you have a change in personal information (phone/address/email) please respond to this email or notify your mentor coach ASAP.
QUOTE of the WEEK
Only the fearful would feel empowerment is something best kept to oneself, or the few, and not shared with all.” Rasheed Ogunlaru
All the best,
Intentional Mentoring