Refer a Mentee

As adults, we all understand the benefit of mentors and role models. We wish that for every young person. To ensure the safety of our mentors, however, we have some requirements.

Generally, we will not accept youth who:

• Are in a current stage of severe mental instability — for example, suicide threats, attempts, or current self-harm.
• Are known to be aggressive or violent.
• Are currently using hard illicit drugs or showing clear signs of alcohol or drug addiction.
• Have strong oppositional defiance toward authority, adults, and society in general.
• Are not currently living in a stable home or program environment (e.g., runaways).
• Are currently in the care of Child Protective Services but not in a stable placement. We don’t want to begin supporting a young person whose living arrangements are uncertain — a relocation mid-match would be detrimental to the young person.
• Come from a family known to have active negative gang involvement, or known to be involved in serious crime, including hard drug use and violence.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please contact us .

Mentors generally receive more than 5 initial hours of training, plus 1–2 hour workshops twice a year. They submit to a police background check, reference checks, and an interview with our program staff before being accepted into the program.

Heart for Youth has extensive policies and procedures that all mentors follow, and we adhere to the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, California Penal Code (PC) 11164 through 11174.3. 

We are in regular contact with our mentors to track each relationship and offer support when needed.

Yes. The matching process is monitored intensively, especially during the first year — monthly contact is made with the mentor (and in some cases the mentee) to see how things are going. Formal meetings take place at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months to discuss goals and progress.