Tips for Afterschool Enrichment Coordinators: Recruiting & Retaining Mentors
Great mentors are the backbone of DREAM! Without their dedication, DREAM’s mission would not be attainable. So, for Afterschool Enrichment Coordinators, planning a great semester starts with recruiting and supporting amazing mentors.
I served as an AEC in the Bennington chapter for three years. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve developed strong strategies for a wide range of responsibilities within the AEC role. In this series of articles, I will be sharing my tips and advice for AECs. Whether you are thinking about applying to be an AEC or you have been serving as an AEC for a while now, there is something in these articles for you!
Read below to learn how to keep current mentors engaged, recruit new mentors, and support your mentor team throughout the semester.
Keeping Mentors Interested & Involved
Most AECs are promoted from a volunteer mentor position. This is a helpful advantage, as you not only already know your mentor team, but you are a peer to them. Both of these factors make it easier to connect with your existing mentor team.
It is highly important that you connect with your mentor team early, ask for their input, and listen effectively. At the beginning of each semester, I would set a time to meet with my mentor team. I’d buy snacks and reserve a classroom on campus, so it was easy for mentors to pop in. We would use this time to catch up, discuss schedules, and set goals for the upcoming semester at DREAM. But, sometimes in-person meetings don’t work out, especially during a busy time like the start of a semester. In these cases, I would reach out to each mentor individually. This was not just to get their schedule for programming, but also to check in with them, generally. When mentors are volunteering a significant amount of their time, it is important for them to know that they are seen and appreciated as people, rather than just mentors.
Here are my tips for connecting with your mentor team before programming begins:
Find a way to connect with each of your mentors individually: It is important to build a strong rapport with each of your mentors, as this trust is what makes programming run smoothly. Find a way to connect with each of your mentors individually, even if it is as small as asking what classes they are taking this semester.
Meet in-person early in the Semester: Having a casual meeting with your mentor team will not only remind them to consider their commitment to DREAM in their upcoming, likely busy, semester, but it will also remind them of the community within the mentor team
Find a way to connect with your mentors: If you cannot meet in-person, that’s okay! But, you should still find a way to connect with each of your mentors. I recommend creating a Discord server for your DREAM chapter, generally, as it is a great way to chat with your full mentor team throughout the semester. Before programming starts, you can also use the Discord server to send a digital poll, typically through Survey Monkey, to determine what days to have programming at each site. Another plus of a Discord server is that you can private message each mentor through the platform to connect with them individually.
Ask for feedback: Ask your mentors what they liked and disliked about the previous semester. This is the most valuable input you can get prior to planning programming. Of course, you will have your own ideas of what is and isn’t working in programming, but your mentors may notice things you don’t. And, asking mentors for their input can make them feel seen and heard, which is of utmost importance when it comes to building strong relationships between yourself and your mentor team.
Implement feedback and suggestions: Don’t reinvent the wheel! Take notes of what each mentor says about programming, including any solutions they may present. And, if your mentors suggest activities for programming, always consider them—if a mentor has taken the time to research activities for DREAM, or they have thought of DREAM when coming across an activity, it is important to reward that dedication by implementing the idea into programming, if possible.
Recruiting New Mentors
Recruiting new mentors can be tricky, to say the least. College students already have a lot on their plate and their time is often already spread thin. It is important to be considerate of this when recruiting new mentors. I recommend, whenever you are explaining DREAM to a prospective mentor, to be as clear as possible about the commitment and what DREAM looks like. Of course, you can hype DREAM up, drawing from your own experience and sharing why it is important to you. But, this should only be the introduction.
There are a few different contexts in which you might be recruiting new mentors, and each of these contexts requires a slightly different approach. Here are my tips for each:
Introducing DREAM at Club Fairs or Recruitment Events: Start by quickly explaining what DREAM is. I recommend having a one or two sentence description ready. Then, ask the student: “does that sound like something you’d be interested in?” If they say yes, then dive right into the information. Students go to club fairs and other recruitment events with the intention of learning more about what their school has to offer, so tell them!
I recommend touching on: what mentors do at DREAM, the size of your program (how many mentors, how many mentees), the expected hourly commitment each week, where programming is, and how students can get to programming. Then, direct the student to a place where they can give you their contact information. When I did recruitment, I usually had a paper sign up sheet and a pen on my table. On the sign up sheet there was a space for each student to write their name and email address—that’s it. You can customize this to your campus: use whatever contact method is typically used among students, clubs, and even houses/dorms.
Discussing DREAM during random encounters: As an AEC, you become a point-person for all questions DREAM. While this mostly applies within programming, it can sometimes extend to on-campus interactions. You may have other students approach you around campus with questions about DREAM, such as at the dining hall or in the lounge. I recommend having a short spiel ready for these encounters. It doesn’t have to be as formal as the strategy for club fairs/recruitment events, but it should effectively: explain what DREAM is/what it looks like for your chapter, state the expected weekly commitment, and collect the prospective mentor’s contact information for follow-up.
Sharing DREAM with friends: Some of the best recruitment comes from talking to your friends about DREAM. Since you know your friends well, you can be more personal while discussing DREAM with them. For example, if you have a friend who is an artist, you could tell them that they would be a good fit for the arts and crafts activities that you do at DREAM. I’m not saying you need to be salesy to your friends, trying to recruit all of them to volunteer with DREAM. But, if you have friends who are interested, or who you think would be a good mentor, it doesn’t hurt to talk with them about it. Express exactly what you’re thinking—why do you think they’d make a good mentor? What do you think they, personally, could gain from participating in DREAM? This can be a great way to recruit some of your longest lasting mentors.
While talking about DREAM is the part that most AECs get stuck on during recruitment, it is not the only part of recruiting. Here are some of my general tips for recruitment:
Connect with your college’s clubs and organizations, student life, and/or student engagement departments: It is likely that one of these departments oversees clubs on your campus, and if not, they can direct you to the correct department. By connecting with the correct department, you can gain access to club recruitment events, club budgets, and other resources allocated to on-campus clubs. And, if you want to bring your mentees on-campus, this department can help you set that up!
Organize transportation to and from programming: If DREAM programming happens off-campus and you don’t have a transportation plan in place, I highly recommend sorting that out before you begin recruitment. This may include: figuring out what route of public transportation mentors need to take to get to each site; setting up a car pool plan with existing mentors; or asking your college’s transportation department if they can provide consistent transportation for students to and from programming.
Ask your mentor team to help with recruitment: When participating in club recruitment events, I recommend having at least two people at your station. These events usually last a few hours, and by having two people, you can remain present at the event, even if one of you needs to use the bathroom, run to the dining hall, etc. I’ve found three is the best number, as it doesn’t make your station crowded, but it allows you to speak with multiple prospective mentors at all times. Prospective mentors may also have specific questions that can be better answered by different mentors.
Keep track of your contact information carefully: If you are using a paper sign up sheet, make sure you are keeping it in a safe place at all times. I also recommend taking a picture of any paper sheets you use, just in case.
Make a specific, intentional outreach plan: Once you have the contact information of a group of prospective mentors, be intentional about how you reach out to them. I would typically do one big group outreach message that ended with an actionable step. For example, “respond to this email with your availability on [days of programming].” Then, I would respond to their responses as they came in with next steps. After about a week, I would also send a follow-up email to anyone who didn’t respond.
Offer trial programming days: Essentially, you offer prospective mentors to come to a day of programming before they fully commit, so they can see what programming looks like. Since all mentors need to be background checked before they can fully work with mentees, prospective mentors need to stick with a current mentor at all times during their trial day. They cannot be alone with a mentee at all, even in a group—they must always be with a current mentor.
For these days, we usually assign the prospective mentor to a specific current mentor that they stay with the whole time (we often refer to this as a mentor’s “buddy”). If the prospective mentor has a friend who is a current mentor, it is best to pair them up. Otherwise, I would recommend pairing prospective mentors with a current mentor who shares a similar interest (arts and crafts, sports, same major, etc.).
Supporting Mentors Through the Semester
While it is important to start the semester off strong, it is also essential to continue supporting mentors throughout the semester. If mentors feel unsupported, they are less likely to stay committed to DREAM. Without consistent attendance from mentors, mentee-mentor relationships suffer, as they rely heavily on consistency. There are lots of ways you can support your mentors, and I recommend trying out a few different strategies to figure out what works best for your team. In the simplest terms, you should be implementing regular ways to show mentors that they are seen, heard, and appreciated.
Here are some ways that I enacted this within my mentor team:
Hosting mentor dinners: I would host an on-campus dinner at the end of each semester, just for mentors. We’d use our club budget from the college to order pizza and buy drinks and snacks. I would reserve a classroom during the college’s dinner time, usually two hours or so, and allow mentors to come and go as they wished. Not only did the food serve as a sort of reward, but we also would chat, play music, and sometimes play games. It was a great way to build community within our mentor team. And, returning mentors began to look forward to it each semester—something positive they could look to when things got stressful, either at DREAM or academically.
Providing incentives and rewards: Try to find ways to reward your mentors for going above and beyond. For example, one semester, Camp DREAM gave us a bunch of Ben & Jerry’s coupons that they had leftover. These coupons were good for one pint of ice cream at the local grocery stores. So, when a mentor went above and beyond, without being prompted, I would give them one of those coupons to show my appreciation. Other times, I’d offer to buy mentors a coffee on our next programming day, give them coveted DREAM swag, or let them choose their programming station/cleaning task first. Figure out what your mentors value most and create incentives/rewards based on that.
Scheduling check-ins: Find a way to check-in with each of your mentors on each programming day. Sometimes, I would have the full group do an activity like “rose, thorn, bud” before programming started. Other times, I would just do a quick check-in with each mentor as they arrived. Something as simple as: “Hey, how’s your week going?” This shows your appreciation for each mentor, and also shows that you care about their lives beyond DREAM. And, it gives you a good understanding of where everyone is at on a given day, which can help you with planning stations and activity leads. This is also a good strategy to use with your mentees!
Offering direct Support: If you notice that one of your mentors is struggling, such as being particularly stressed with academics or consistently feeling down during check-ins, I recommend discussing it with your Youth Service Manager or Director. Together, you can keep an eye on the mentor and create an intervention plan, if necessary.
While supporting and growing your mentor team can seem overwhelming, it is one of the most important factors in retaining amazing mentors and fostering strong mentor-mentee relationships. With the tips and strategies from this article, you should be able to confidently manage your mentor team throughout the semester!
If you are a current AEC, please keep an eye out for the coming articles in this series, which will be full of tips and strategies for all things AEC!
If you would like to learn more about the role of an AEC before applying, please see this article, which explores the responsibilities of an AEC at DREAM.
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