GIVE A SUMMER’S PROGRAM TO HELP MENTEES ACCESS SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES

Description of the need, opportunity, and content of Give a Summer’s structured program to help mentors engage mentees in conversations and planning for a great summer.

Prepared by Give a Summerramon@giveasummer.orgGiveaSummer.org

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Mass Mentoring Partnership

• MMP is fueling the movement to expand empowering youth-adult relationships to meet the needs of communities across Massachusetts.

• Stay in touch!• Janeen Smith, Manager of Training and Technical Assistance• jsmith@massmentors.org• 617-695-2436

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1 slide overview of the program• What is it? 6 or so structured and supported mentor-mentee conversations of ~15

minutes each to help mentees reflect on past summer experiences, explore interests for this coming summer, overcome obstacles in summer planning, begin to find summer opportunities that they are excited about, and apply for and enroll in programs.

• Need:• For great summer opportunities: Summer learning loss & ‘opportunity gap’• Missed opportunities in Boston: good programs with space, lots of youth who miss out

• Role for mentors:• Help youth develop plans for the summer and provide encouragement, accountability,

and problem-solving to help youth push through obstacles to seize opportunities• Benefits:

• Youth access more summer opportunities and get experience making and realizing out of school plans, mentors play another great role in mentee’s lives and form connections to mentee’s summer plans, perhaps increasing retention of mentors for the next year.

• Timeline & Details: • Program would run at no cost for 5 – 6 sessions, ideally beginning in early April• On our website are additional materials so we can get started: curriculum for mentors, a

sample legal agreement, etc.

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Outline of presentation

• About Give a Summer

• Need

• Why mentors?

• Details: Program schedule and responsibilities (Give a Summer, mentor organization, mentors)

• Benefits

• Next steps if interested

Slide #

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Background on Give a Summer

Give a Summer• Boston-based nonprofit working to expand access to great summer opportunities to all

youth. • Initiatives:

• Helping communities better understand where and why youth miss out on summer opportunities

• Partnering with mentor organizations and other volunteers working with youth to help youth get excited about, plan for, and take advantage of great summer opportunities

• Approach: • Develop initiatives which we believe are high-impact and not already being done• Implement and refine initiatives with collaborators • Actively share our results and tools • Persuade others to follow our work in their communities or at larger scale

About me:• Ramon Gonzalez, founder and director of Give a Summer.

• Graduated from Yale in 2012 and then worked for two years at Bridgewater Associates, a leading investment firm.

• Started Give a Summer in June 2014 and has been working full-time on it since.

Our current focus

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Why the summer matters and why there are opportunities to help here in BostonSummer is a great, important time for youth, though too many miss out:• Summer learning loss – lower income youth lose 2 months of reading, while wealthier

peers even experience gains; effects are cumulative and explain a lot of the achievement gap.

• Opportunity gap – by age 12, lower income youth have spent about 6,000 fewer hours engaged in out of school learning environments and activities than wealthier peers

• From our research in a Boston middle school, only 1/3 of youth attend a summer program.

Summer programs help youth• A national, multi-city study (that includes Boston) found significant math gains from

summer programs with Boston programs also showing improvements in social and emotional development

Boston has many good, award-winning programs that often have space• The Boston Summer Learning Project, a group of low-cost Boston summer programs,

was recognized with a national Excellence in Summer Learning Award in 2013• That same year, those programs had 10% of their seats go unfilled

-> Challenge: Help more youth in Boston access great summer opportunities

More research and links available at http://www.giveasummer.org/need/

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How can help mentors help?

• Lots of barriers facing youth and parents as they try to access summer opportunities

• Need to fix those barriers, but also help youth work around them by: • Getting youth to expect and get excited about participating in great summer

opportunities• Help youth work around obstacles and persevere to find a program that is great for

them.

• Older role models can play a key role in this work • We believe this because it already happens with parents, great guidance

counselors, older siblings, and other adults who help youth do great things over the summer.

• But there is more to do to help all youth make great summer plans, and we think mentors can play a leading role in tackling that gap as well as improving the ways adults and role models help youth make great summer plans.

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Program schedule & key support material

• Week 0: before program starts, mentor organization explains work to mentors and prepares them (with possible Give a Summer in-person support)

• Letter explaining work to mentors as well as schedule for following weeks

• Week 1: Introduce upcoming conversations and share previous summer experiences• Mentee takes brief survey on previous summer participation, interest in upcoming summer, and

certainty of summer plans

• Week 2: Understand and spark mentee interests for the upcoming summer

• Week 3: Find potential programs and opportunities• Mentor provided with resource list of nearby programs by topic area as well as page for mentee to note

down programs and conduct future research

• Week 4: Navigate constraints and finalize choices

• Week 5: Problem solve application challenges or other obstacles

• Week 6: Finalizing decisions and getting excited• Mentee takes brief survey on upcoming summer plans and excitement about them. Mentee also rates

these conversations. • Mentor takes survey providing feedback on conversations, perception of impact, and satisfaction with

this program.

More detail in full syllabus online

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What specifically would Give a Summer do for this pilot?• Work with its partner(s) to understand their work and tailor this work to their needs• Provide all materials:

• detailed, week-by-week syllabus for mentors to follow• letter to mentors explaining work• letter to parents explaining work• resources for mentors to help mentees find summer programs• pre and post surveys for mentors and mentees to complete

• Respond to feedback and challenges that may come up during the pilot to make sure mentors and mentees have a great experience

• Conduct analysis based on feedback and surveys to examine impact of work• share this with the partner organization (and share an anonymized public version

online so that others can benefit too)• Be on hand as necessary and as agreed upon to kick off work, check in with mentors,

etc. • No cost for work

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What does the mentor organization need to do?

• Biggest one: work with Give a Summer to kick off work in a timely fashion, with the first mentor-mentee session ideally no later than April 10

• Dedicate about 15 minutes of time at 6 mentor / mentee meetings for the work (or find some other schedule for mentor-mentee interactions)

• Secure commitment of mentors to implement this program with the materials and guidance Give a Summer provides

• Provide feedback, especially constructive, to Give a Summer promptly so that Give a Summer can quickly fix any problems and make improvements

• Secure the necessary student and parental consent so that Give a Summer can administer pre and post-surveys to evaluate program effectiveness and collect mentee feedback. • Give a Summer can also be creative in exploring other ways to get feedback on the

program and data to evaluate its impact.

• Have mentors complete feedback forms at the end of the pilot

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What would the mentor do?

Mentor’s role: help their mentees form great summer plans. Mentor should provide encouragement, ideas, and accountability so mentees can follow through on their plans and work around obstacles that may come up. • The mentor’s role is not to independently pick out programs and/or fill out applications.

Requirements: • Prepare by reading introductory letter and program syllabus before first meeting

• Estimated time: ~15 minutes

• Prepare for each conversation by reviewing the goal of that week’s conversation, suggested questions, and any accompanying material (survey for mentee, list of nearby programs, etc.)• Estimated time: ~10 minutes per session

• Provide feedback at the end of the summer-focused conversations• Estimated time: ~10 minutes

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Benefits

Youth• More youth access great summer opportunities• More youth develop expectation and excitement about of out of school opportunities

and confidence that they can make and realize their own plans

Mentors• Deepen connection with youth over shared experience (summer) as well as

collaboration on making summer plans this year• Satisfaction from specific, tangible impact (helped my mentee access a summer

program)

Mentor organizations• Benefits to mentors and mentee described above• Greater mentor retention from increased satisfaction as well as from mentor connection

to mentee summer experience to bridge gap between end of one school year and beginning of the next

Broader work of increasing access to summer opportunities• As we evaluate and refine the program and support for mentors and mentees, we will

be able to share better materials and suggestions to help the many adults who do and could help youth make great summer plans

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I’m interested – what next?

• Get in touch with Ramon by emailing ramon@giveasummer.org

• Review key materials for the program:• Agreement between Give a Summer and your organization (most important)• Program syllabus• Both of these are online at www.giveasummer.org/resources-enlisting-mentors/

• Questions / details we need to finalize:• Which specific days would the program run?• Would Ramon provide in-person support on any days?• How would you introduce the program to mentors?

• Any introduction to parents?

• Any requirements before surveying mentees to evaluate program impact? • Geographic location of program and/or mentees so Give a Summer can customize

suggested list of summer programs

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Questions