Male Mentors for Asian American Youth

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Asian American LEAD Youth Leadership Empowerment and Development (AALEAD) is a youth development organization. Our mission is to support low-income and underserved Asian Pacific American youth with educational empowerment, identity development, and leadership opportunities through after school, summer, and mentoring programs. For more information, please visit our web site at www.aalead.org.

Asian American LEAD is seeking a dedicated male mentors with Vietnamese or Chinese-speaking skills who is able to mentor in Fairfax County, VA and Montgomery County, MD area. The time commitment for this opportunity would be 6 hours per month for at least one year.

Our Youth Mentoring Program matches Asian Pacific American youth (ages 10-18) with caring adults who support them one-on-one in their efforts to develop the academic, social, and life skills necessary to succeed. Mentoring pairs are matched in DC, Montgomery County, MD, and Fairfax County, VA.

Roles of a Youth Mentor Mentors may take on many roles, depending on their mentee’s age and needs. They do some of the following:

• Have fun doing new activities together
• Provide academic support
• Model behavior
• Listen carefully to their mentees’ concerns
• Enhance their mentees’ belief in their own potential
• Advocate for their mentees’ needs
• Open doors of opportunity

Mentor Qualifications AALEAD mentors must be:

• Committed to making a difference in a young person’s life
• Able to act as a role model
• Open-minded and willing to share and learn
• Willing to act as a volunteer under the supervision of AALEAD
• Over the age of 21
• Pass background and reference checks
• Access to a car and valid driver’s license is required to mentor in Fairfax County
• Conversational to fluent in Vietnamese

Commitment AALEAD requires that mentors commit to meeting with their mentees at least six hours a month for a minimum of one year. We want to emphasize that any commitment less than one year is not what AALEAD is looking for in a long and lasting relationship between the mentee and mentor.

Meeting places and times are decided by mentor and mentee (weekday afternoons/evenings and/or weekends). In return, AALEAD commits to providing mentors with the support and resources they need to learn and develop as a good mentor and to ensure that the relationship is rewarding to both the mentor and mentee.

All new volunteers are given an orientation. During the course of your mentoring relationship, you must submit mentor logs (a brief synopsis of each session) to the mentoring program staff on a monthly basis. You will also be invited to attend monthly mentor/mentee group activities.

vbui@aalead.org

http://www.aalead.org/get-involved/volunteer/

Application Process

1. Submit your application
2. Schedule an interview
3. AALEAD will process your application
4. Qualified candidates will be invited to a mentor training
5. The matching process begins
6. Meet your mentee and mentee’s family!

Mentor Interview and Screening In order to ensure that the volunteers we recruit are suitable matches for the youth we serve, AALEAD carefully screens each potential mentor.

First, we invite you to a personal interview. The purpose of the interview is to answer any questions you may have and to learn enough about you to start the process of matching you with a young person. Qualified candidates who move forward in the process will be invited to a mentor training when and if a potential young person is ready to be matched with them. Before beginning the matching process, we contact character references and conduct criminal background checks, including motor vehicle checks (if you plan to transport your mentee in a personal vehicle). Finally, once you are formally accepted into the program, you are invited to a match meeting, where you will be introduced to your mentee and his/her family.