Training Mentors for Faith-Based Mentoring

Mentoring is the process of one person with more experience helping another person reach goals. In recent years, efforts to help children who are both in the criminal justice system and Alternative Behavior Units (ABU) in public schools have moved to using mentoring programs to help them change their current paths in life. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe a faith-based mentor training program that was developed to support the implementation of a faith-based mentoring program. The program was for students in grades two through eight who were having problems both in school and out of school resulting in poor academic and behavioral performance. All mentors volunteered through the outreach efforts of a local Christian church. The mentor training process and some outcomes of the training program are presented. Implications of the training and the need for additional research are presented.