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Youth in Transition Toolkit:

Youth in Transition Toolkit

  1. Educate yourself
  2. Engage families
  3. Support youth
    1. My best life
    2. Independent living
    3. Employment
    4. Postsecondary education and training
1

My best life

Advocating for a best life

Mentoring experiences

Could the youth benefit from a mentoring experience to help them prepare for their best life?

A mentor can help youth reach work and life goals through support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive examples. Mentoring relationships can provide academic and career guidance as well as effective role models for leadership and communication.

  • Awareness: Understand types of mentoring experiences.
  • Exploration: Identify strengths, preferences, interests and needs related to mentoring.
  • Preparation: Explore mentoring opportunities.
  • Implementation: Participate in mentoring experiences.

Instruction in self-advocacy

Lightbulb LEARN

LEARN: Develop your knowledge

Learn how to support youth in exploring mentoring opportunities.

Mentoring relationships may take different forms.

  • Peer mentoring: A person close in age acts as a sounding board for ideas and plans and provides informal guidance.
  • Disability mentoring: A person with a disability mentors another person, usually with a similar disability. The relationship generally focuses on a specific area such as living independently, recovering from a traumatic event, getting a job or being new to the workforce.
  • Group mentoring: A mentor works with a group of mentees.
  • E-mentoring: A mentor works with a mentee through email, chat or other digital tools.

MENTOR Minnesota supports and collaborates with more than 200 mentor programs that serve 130,000 youth of all ages (primarily 8 to 18) in mentoring relationships across Minnesota.

Resources DO

DO: Work with youth

Find resources to help youth explore mentoring opportunities.

For ideas on how to begin conversations about careers, consider career conversation starters from the American School Counselor Association.

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