Mar. 10, 2007
Questions about mentoring a man taking Correspondence courses at NCC:
What are the goals of
this program?
- To give a boost in confidence, the evidence that they can do college work, and to encourage them to continue with courses after release.
- To provide some college courses for a resume.
Who can be an academic mentor: An adult trained (by Partakers) who
is not at present a volunteer. If
you wish to change your status to visitor, you must write to Ellen Flaminio,
Director of Treatment, at NCC, and say
so. (PO Box 1069, Concord 01742)
Active volunteers are not allowed to also be visitors, as you know!
How do I learn what
to do?
There will be a 2-hour orientation in late May in Concord for all those who are interested in mentoring men at NCC. You will also get a detailed Volunteer handbook.
What will a mentor at
NCC actually do:-
- Sign in as a visitor, and follow the visitors’ rules.
- Go in in pairs, and talk with your student in the visitors’ room, at least once a month.
- You cannot bring any papers in with you; the student cannot bring anything to the meeting.
So how do you talk about academics? From
Partaker’s: “The
question – ‘I don’t know anything about physics’ – is a very common one that
volunteers ask. We respond by saying that the academic mentoring is less
about content specific tutoring and more about support. Checking in about
assignments, making certain students understand the nature of the assignment,
working with a student on a specific paper (seeking how the student will go
about writing it, offering support in deriving a thesis statement and the
overall “ordering” and content of the paper; offering to review it prior to the
student’s submitting it – NOT re-writing it; rather offering suggestions;
pointing out weaknesses, etc.); helping to prioritize time as it relates to
school work/time management issues; when appropriate, helping secure
internet-related research. We have discovered that there are MANY ways to
support students academically without being content area experts. We
cover all of this material in our Orientation so that folks will be familiar
with what to expect and what they can “justifiably” and suitably offer as
mentors. It’s a learning process, but I will tell you that in the many
years we’ve been doing this, mentors rarely (if ever) feel ineffective in the
work they do to support their students.
As to courses – we typically select them at Partakers, paying close attention to which courses have been most successful (content as well as instructor); and the courses are typically those like Cultural Anthropology, Sociology (options), History (several options), all of which are easily transferable at any college and serve as either major-specific requirements or electives. (LK)You can correspond with info between meetings …can do Internet research and mail in info, using your church’s address for mailing. - Some mentors can be only corresponding.
What about gifts, etc: your mentoring group can give 2 gifts/year: on a man’s birthday, and on whatever holiday he celebrates around December. Gifts are limited to: 1 academic book, 1 magazine subscription, or 1 newspaper subscription. Period!
- You should NOT be having contact with their families by phone or in person.
How long does this go on?
Your contact ends after the man leaves prison or completes the three courses allowed. That’s where Partakers ends its role. You may want to take on another person, then—people who’ve done this work in other prisons generally love it, and find it is transforming, for them as much as for the men they work with.
(Information supplied by Lanny Kutikoff, Exec. Director, Partakers, Inc.)