By Christopher Cappielllo

The GLASS Mentoring Program matches committed volunteers with youth in need of supportive, one-on-one attention.

In June 2004 the Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS) added a mentoring program to the agency's impressive array of services for foster youth, matching volunteers of all backgrounds with teens from GLASS group homes and the organization's other foster care programs. "As a result of probably six months worth of conversations with staff, community, our board, and the educational and university complex in and around Los Angeles, we came to the conclusion that the time was right from a community point of view for broad community mentoring," explains Rachel White, GLASS' chief administrative officer.

For more than 20 years GLASS has provided a range of social services to youth who are homeless or in the foster care system, with a special emphasis on young people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, or who are questioning their sexuality. The mentoring program is a natural extension of the agency's broad-based efforts to help young people establish the skills and relationships necessary for a healthy and happy adulthood. Members of the community can volunteer to be academic mentors, relationship-based mentors, or both. All mentors undergo a thorough and supportive training process to prepare for the responsibility of entering the life of a foster care youth. The first eight mentor/mentee matches were just made in June 2005.

"When we first started the program, [mentors] would get 21 hours of pre-match training," explains Stephanie Inyama, the mentoring program director. GLASS has partnered with mPLAY (Mentoring Partners for Los Angeles Youth), a local agency that provides the first six hours of generalized training. Following that, Inyama provides the next 15 hours of training, focusing on "relationship-based communication type training and understanding youth in foster care." As the program has developed, Inyama has seen that ongoing support is as important as pre-match training, so the mentors also have a support group for another 20 hours of training. "We provide the support for them," she says, "where they discuss their match relationships. We also have one of our therapists, a social worker in one of the group homes, who comes as the expert to help answer any questions. At the same time I provide information training on the stages of their relationship, what they should expect."

Mentors and mentees are matched with an eye to common interests more than gender or age. "What really links them is having something in common -- whether it's art, or history -- because the youth, they don't care! They just want a mentor," Inyama says, with a warm, winning smile that immediately sets a visitor at ease. "They don't care if it's a male or a female. They just want somebody for them. Because every adult in their life is a paid staff and they can't spend that one-on-one time. But what gets the youth to engage with a mentor is having something in common that they can do." She points to one mentor/mentee relationship where music is the common bond. The mentor plays guitar and the mentee plays guitar and piano and is currently teaching the mentor piano. Inyama explains how this allows the youth to be the expert, building self-esteem and confidence.

Just as the mentors undergo training, the youth involved in the program have an orientation that spells out the expectations of the mentoring relationship. Inyama gets creative with games like "build a mentor," where youth add qualities to a poster of a mentor figure to discover what they are looking for in their prospective mentor. "This helps to pull it out of them," she explains, "because a lot of times they don't know what it is they want."

There is a very structured system for matching mentors, as well, with both the adult and the youth having the opportunity to "interview" a potential match. "The first meet-and-greet is a preliminary look to match the mentor and mentee," Inyama explains. "We introduce them with different types of activities. And after we see how it goes, we have the second meet-and-greet, where we bring in the social worker [from the mentee's group home], we have a dinner and we do different activities." Both the mentee and mentor commit to one year. "They both sign contracts in the beginning so they understand what the commitment is," Inyama reveals. Does GLASS hope or expect that contracts will be renewed? "The goal is for them to be matched forever!" she answers with a laugh, "But we don't want to scare the mentors or mentees because it's very hard to commit beyond that time. But research has shown that if they develop a relationship for at least a year, the outcomes for the mentee are better. They have improved behavior. And over the long run, it does benefit them as they become adults."

Mentors are expected to spend a minimum of 10 hours a month with their mentee, with regular, weekly contact an important part of building the relationship. The first three months of relationship-based mentoring are supervised, with the meetings taking place either at the youth's group home, or at the GLASS day center. The social worker/therapist at the youth's group home is also an important source of support for both parties. "The social worker from the group home is kind of like the Mom," Inyama explains with a laugh, "So they're the ones who have to know what's going on. And that's the great thing about GLASS -- all of our support is internal. They know the youth, so they can help with the building and developing of the mentoring relationship."

Because the mentees are under 18 and in foster care, there are very serious boundaries in terms of privacy and confidentiality. "Any personal information that is told to the mentor is told by the mentee at the mentee's discretion," Inyama carefully explains. "And the mentor can't ask. The mentee has to volunteer the information. And our mentors are trained on that. They don't ask. They don't pry. The mentee has to feel open to wanting to share." The social worker can be helpful in dealing with specific behavior of the youth, however, without revealing confidential information to a mentor. "The won't say, 'He's having this behavior because of this [prior] incident,'" Inyama describes, but they can say, "The best way to deal with this behavior is this way." White, the chief administrative officer, wishes the privacy requirements were less absolute. "If you were to ask me what are my biggest concerns about the program, the privacy thing is going to be very difficult. Because the nature of what you're trying to develop is a personal relationship. Well, secrets don't work well in a personal relationship. We need some kind of regulatory relief that makes sense."

Another challenge facing the agency, according to White, is the 2003 passage of AB 408, "that said we have to mentor social services or foster care youth. And it was an unfunded mandate. Which is how the state does a lot of social services. So that's a big issue echoing throughout the entire state. Because it's not going to be free. Twenty hours of structured training!" She emphasizes the need for community-wide mobilization, both in terms of financial support and mentor participation. "It will have to be a community project to work."

When asked what surprised them most since the new program began, both women mention the dedication of the mentors. "What's a big surprise to me is how passionate and dedicated our mentors are. I tell them, 'We're the pioneers,'" Inyama says, with pride. "The overall interest community-wide in mentoring was a surprise to me," White adds. "That has been really wonderful to experience."

To learn more about becoming a GLASS mentor, contact Stephanie Inyama at (310) 358-8727, ext. 151, or by e-mail at stephaniei@glassla.org.