YBL Information for Mentors
Why Mentorship?
Research continually shows a mentor’s power and impact on a teenager in continuing to live into their faith and a potential calling to ministry. The desire to be seen and heard is essential to human life. Everyone seeks significance, meaning, and capability. We want to be known, to have a purpose, and to be able to contribute in ways that matter. Mentoring gives space for these things to develop. In mentoring, young people can grow in their abilities through sustained caring and coaching amidst mistakes, failures, and successes. Your involvement in your mentee’s life is significant, and we believe you will make a huge difference in their life. Thank you for investing in this way.
We want Youth Becoming Leaders to be an experience that launches students into a lifetime of leadership and discipleship. As a mentor, you serve a critical role in helping students integrate YBL and everyday life.
Expectations and Roles for Mentors
Before YBL
Once your student is accepted, we will provide you with both a digital and physical mentor workbook, along with information about what your student will experience during YBL. Additionally, we will provide you with guidance on how you can support your mentee during the program.
We would like to request that you schedule a meeting with your mentee before YBL to discuss their Ministry project. During this meeting, encourage and guide the development of the Ministry project your student will be working on at YBL and take home from YBL to help the local church or community. If you think someone from your church could help guide the project, we encourage you to include them in this meeting as well. However, it is important to note that the goal is not for you or anyone else to do the work, but rather to encourage your mentee and assist them in thinking well about the project.
During YBL
We ask that you make yourself available via phone or text June 14-17 for conversations with your student to discuss their ministry project and on June 18 for a Zoom meeting with all the mentors and mentees. We will email you this Zoom link in May.
After YBL
You might see your role post-institute as two-fold: having vocational/spiritual conversations and helping facilitate their ministry project.
After the residential part of the program, we will give you and your student 12 weeks of devotionals to walk through together. These are designed for you both to complete on your own and then to come together to discuss weekly. We hope you will see these as a starting place for your ongoing conversations on leadership, vocation, and discipleship.
The students will be developing a project they will initiate in your community. They will begin this process before they come. After the residential program, they will need ongoing encouragement, support, and guidance as they lead these projects. Being engaged and involved in this process will allow you to be present for those teachable moments when the student might need a word of encouragement, a small piece of advice, or just your support to know that someone believes in them.
Supporting a YBL Student?
Help cover the cost of the participant fee for your student.