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Evidence and research has shown that adults tend to have a need to integrate new ideas with what they already know. Adults learn best from the sharing of common experiences with other fellow adults. Barriers that often deter adults from mentoring or developing nurturing roles can be overcome in situations where mutual experiences, interests and knowledge are shared with colleagues, thus, a way of connecting with new people. Solutions to common problems dealing with troubled youth which adult mentors face in the adult-mentee relationships can be mutually dealt with. Training derived primarily from the brainstorming of experiences will help adult mentors to boost their confidence levels and abilities in building self-esteem in troubled youths. The goal is to create sharing relationships that are based on trust and role modeling of positive values.
Breaking down adults into small groups for interaction to elicit more sincere responses to concepts dealing with troubled youth will provide "experienced focused training" for adults from all walks of life. Practical guidelines to stimulate and provoke thought in the areas of self-esteem building, problem solving and goal setting can be discussed and evaluated. Adult mentors will be able to recognize, maximize and enhance the strengths of troubled teens through the development of proper mental attitudes and systematic procedures for dealing with troubled youth who are going through the struggles of adolescence.
Training adult mentors to recognize and maximize the strengths of troubled teens through an organization wide unifying system of communication for developing rapport, creating attainable goals and motivating at-risk youth should be the goal of any mentoring organization.
Mentor training should provide a proven system for generating troubled teens with self-esteem building skills, concepts, ideas, strategies and problem solving skills. While training adults to recognize and help troubled youths to overcome limitations in the adult-troubled teen mentor relationships.
Though mentor training is comprehensive in nature, the training should not be presented as an exhaustive review of mentoring. The message is clearly stated regarding the need for the development of important relationships for these youths with adults who can help them energize their inner resources to meet the challenges of life today. Within the training suggestions, thoughts and experience to help facilitate the forging of such relationships should be created.
Mentor training should also be an interactive process to stimulate, provoke thought and guide anyone in improving or developing mentoring skills and work well in training individuals individually or best in group workshop situations.
How often do you hear someone asking "I wish I knew how to motivate my troubled son or daughter." Here's a proven system to develop mentoring skills for dealing with troubled youth for those who never thought they could.
Therlon Harris developed Motivational Mentoring 101. Therlon is a former basic education teacher of incarcerated adolescent male offenders. His leadership and 30 years of experience has allowed him to stay on the cutting edge of practices in education, business and community. Experienced in job coaching and job development for ex-offenders, Therlon has mentored many youthful and adult offenders into socially accepted careers.
Therlon holds both B.S. & M.S. Degrees from the University of Michigan. He has long-term experiences in a variety of academic disciplines and has served as consultant for non-profit service organizations serving at-risk students. He has acted as presenter of innovative human services programs to local, state and national audiences. In addition, Therlon has served as a youth mentor, family worker, drug abuse educator and role model for a variety of private agencies.
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