Supporting Our Youth
Mentoring Policy and Procedure Manual
Mentoring Policy and Procedure Manual
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Mentoring Policy and Procedure Manual |
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The mentoring and housing initiative is one of the most complex and challenging of the Supporting Our Youth initiatives. The vision for this historic project in community development involved significant input from all members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities, both youth and adults, as well as from organizations which provide similar services in the mainstream social service sector. Following the decision to include transsexual and transgender adult mentors and youth in the mentoring and housing initiative, there was also significant consultation with members of the transsexual and transgender communities.
Central to the success of the program is a thorough screening, orientation, matching and follow-up process.
Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth is committed to establishing a group of informed and dedicated adults who will make themselves available in a variety of contexts to act as listeners, and help youth to clarify their life-choices within the context of their sexual orientation/gender identity. We are also developing a variety of housing options where these young people can find an affordable, safe, and supportive living arrangement.
Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth encourages and invites applications from adults and youth who represent the diverse range of individuals who are part of our communities. Furthermore, there will be no discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, racial or cultural group, religious affiliation, HIV status or disability.
In October, 1996, the Toronto Coalition for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth sponsored "Other Youth Lives II," a province-wide conference on the issues and needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, funded primarily by the Ontario Ministry of Health, AIDS Bureau and the Trillium Foundation. The conference was attended by more than 500 participants, half of whom were from the greater Toronto area, and more than one-third of whom were youth. The conference included geographically-based discussion groups, which focused on needs/issues in their local communities and developed initial plans for further work. The Toronto-area group discussed the intergenerational rift between adults and youth in the community and the need to provide adult mentors and supportive housing for youth.
As a result of this discussion, the AIDS Bureau provided financial support to enable the Coalition to conduct a needs assessment/feasibility study during the summer of 1997. This study collected data from a variety of sources including:
Information from these sources confirmed the existence of a rift between adults and youth in the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities, and clearly demonstrated that many youth are in desperate need of positive adult mentors and safe and supportive housing situations. This information was used to obtain funding from the Trillium Foundation for the Supporting Our Youth Project.
During the summer of 1998, volunteers from the Supporting Our Youth Project visited the Albert Kennedy Trust in London, England, one of the mentoring /housing programs for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth described on the internet. It was discovered that the project had been operating for 10 years and had successfully matched dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth (up to 19 years of age) with adult community mentors and supportive housing providers. The visit produced valuable information regarding the screening, orientation, training, matching and follow-up process utilized by the Albert Kennedy Trust in operating a successful and safe program.
The Advisory Committee for Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth was struck in November, 1998. The Advisory Committee began collecting information and planning a mentoring and housing project. Its work included site visits to Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Toronto, and to the Foster Home Recruitment and Volunteer Programs at Children's Aid Society of Toronto. These site visits also provided important information about the processes they used to ensure successful matches.
The Advisory Committee also conducted two focus groups, one with individuals who had previously indicated that they had lived with adult lesbians or gay men at some point in their coming out process, and one with adults who had provided supportive housing to lesbian, gay or bisexual youth who were coming out and had few other resources. The focus groups provided the Advisory Committee with first-hand accounts of the circumstances which contributed to the success or failure of these mentoring situations and pin-pointed factors which needed to be considered in the project.
During the summer of 1999, the Advisory Committee made a decision to more explicitly include transgender and transsexual adult mentors and youth in the program. Following this decision, the Advisory Committee organized consultations with members of these communities and sponsored a workshop to increase the knowledge and sensitivity of volunteers in working with transsexual and transgender people.
Although Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth is a new initiative in Toronto, and the first of its kind in Canada, much of the screening/orientation, matching and follow-up process described in this manual is based on the work and experiences of the various groups and organizations described above.
Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth has also been developed with significant input from a volunteer advisory committee consisting of diverse members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender communities. The Advisory Committee consists of adults and youth, from a variety of different backgrounds and with significant expertise in many areas. The Project Supervisor for the Supporting Our Youth Project (who is also a Program Co-ordinator in the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth Program at Central Toronto Youth Services) and the Project Co-ordinator for the Supporting Our Youth Project are also members of the Advisory Committee.
The Advisory Committee, as it currently exists, will continue to support, direct, and promote Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth throughout the pilot project phase, from September, 1999 to September, 2000, when a decision will be made about the future direction of the project. Some members of the Advisory Committee will also participate as volunteers in various parts of the orientation and follow-up process.
For the purposes of this document, the following definitions will be used:
youth - a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender or questioning person, 16 to 25 years of age, who has indicated an interest in utilizing the services of the project.
applicant - an adult, 26 years of age or older, who has indicated an interest in becoming a community mentor or a housing mentor, but who has not completed the orientation/screening process described in this manual.
community mentor - an adult, 26 years of age or older, who has been appropriately screened according to the process described in this manual and who is, or is available to be, matched with a youth for contact in the community, where the youth does not live in the mentor's home.
housing mentor - an adult, 26 years of age or older, who has been appropriately screened according to the process described in this manual, and who has a youth living in his/her home, or who is available to have a youth living in his/her home.
volunteer - for the purposes of this project, a volunteer is a member of the Advisory Committee for Supporting Our Youth: Mentoring and Housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Youth, or another individual (not a mentor or youth as described above) who is involved in other aspects of the project without remuneration. Volunteers who have access to personal information regarding mentors or youth will be required to sign a Volunteer Confidentiality Agreement prior to their involvement.
staff - during the pilot project phase, staff will include a 0.57 FTE social worker (funded by United Way of Toronto) and social work students working under the supervision of the supervisor of the Supporting Our Youth Project.
supervisor - during the pilot project phase, the mentoring and housing initiative will be supervised by the Project Supervisor for the Supporting Our Youth Project. This individual is also a Program Co-ordinator in the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth Program at Central Toronto Youth Services.
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