National Mentoring Resource Center and Your Program Explained: September 30th NMRC Deadline

August 25, 2016

There is one big question going around the MPM office this week, “How is it the middle of August already?!” As your program thinks about the rest of 2016, keep in mind that all requests for the 2016 National Mentoring Resource Center training and technical assistance must be submitted by September 30th for any work to be done in 2016!

Are you familiar with the free National Mentoring Resource Center?

The program is sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that has supported mentoring programs with $769 million in mentoring appropriations from FY (fiscal year) 2008-2016. The program’s goal is to increase opportunities for youth have mentors and improve the quality and impact of the mentoring they receive. The Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota (MPM) is the technical assistance and training provider for programs in Minnesota and surrounding states. The types of assistance provided is personalized to mentoring programs individual needs and focused implementation of specific mentoring practices.

Interested in submitting a new request? Requests are now submitted through OJJDP’s centralized technical assistance site, TTA360.

How do you define ‘technical assistance’ ?

Technical Assistance can be personalized to what your organization needs and to meet what stage your program is in.

Ask yourself the following questions when thinking about the next 6 months at your program:

Do you need help with mentor recruitment and retention? Have a questions about best practices for managing or monitoring matches? Do your grants continue to ask for logic models or best-practice evaluation? Need to review your policy and procedures or training materials? Questions about the new Elements of Effective Practice and how your program can incorporate them?

All of those questions fit under that umbrella. If you have a question or would like further examples please contact MPM’s Carolyn Scherer via email or phone (612) 399-0229 for additional information.

 

What does the whole process look like from start to finish?

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Please note if you have any questions about this process, MPM can walk you through the necessary steps. 

  1. Go to the TTA360 website and select NMRC as the TA provider.
  2. An Memorandum of Understanding will be crafted after consultation with one of MPM’s staff members.
  3. Once the MOU is signed by all necessary parties,  there is a pre-survey to complete.
  4. After Technical Assistance is provided, there is an evaluation which is reviewed by MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership.
  5. TA Provider/MPM completes their report.

Have further questions? Leave a comment, reach out via email or give us a call.

Simpson housing has gone through the National Mentoring Resource Training twice and provided some insight into their experience.

MPM: What was the focus of your National Mentoring Resource Center training?  

“For the first round of training we were developing a new mentoring program to serve middle-school students in our Family Housing Program. We had done tutoring and education support in the past, but mentoring was new to us [Simpson Housing] as an organization. We had the NMRC training help us with many things from developing our logic model,  choosing evaluation tools, and creating a recruitment strategy.
Our program went so well that we re-designed the program and added a second mentoring program with a literacy focus for Kindergarten through fifth grade students. This led to us reapplying for NMRC training. In the second round of NMRC was used to create a student-run conference, refine our recruitment messages and redesign our logic model.”
MPM: How did NMRC benefit your organization and matches?
“This helped us immensely in starting new programs. We were able to do some development work on our own based on our expertise in working with homeless and highly mobile families and then take our ideas and get feedback around best practices in mentoring. It gave us the insight and confidence we needed to start a quality program.”
MPM: Are there any quantifiable numbers associated with the benefit you described?
  • 2 new programs designed to serve 20 youth each year (so 40 mentors, 40 youth each year)
  • Pilot year of Middle School Program served 18 mentors and mentees
  • Pilot year of Literacy Mentoring is currently serving 5 mentors and mentees and is adding 15 in coming months
MPM: Because the technical assistance was free, what impact did this have on Simpson’s budget and programming?
“Being in the nonprofit field sometimes means that urgent daily tasks take precedence over items that can wait. Having this NMRC grant kept us on task in our development and also saved us time on our end. We were able to spend the time brainstorming and working and then MPM staff would add in research, type up notes, and direct us to more ideas/resources.”
MPM: What would be your one piece of advice for those planning to complete NMRC?
“Go for whatever your program needs to improve- MPM was able to tackle a wide range of topics.  Don’t be afraid to get specific about what you need. If you’re not sure what area to address, ask for ideas. Take advantage of this amazing resource!”