What to do if your mentee is being bullied?
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- Inform the site supervisor immediately.
- Make sure that your mentee is not thinking about hurting him/herself or someone else. If they suggest that they are being harassed, please inform the site supervisor immediately. There are protocols in place at each site to handle these situations. Also, talk to your mentee and remind them about the importance of speaking up by letting their parents/guardians and teachers know they are being bullied.
- With e-bullying growing nationwide, also make sure that your mentee is not being harassed online. If so, make sure to inform the site supervisor immediately.
- Work on building your mentee's self-esteem and negative body image perceptions. Being bullied can take a toll on how one feels about him/herself. There are a variety of self-esteem and image building activities that you can do with your mentee. You can find some useful tips and activities in MUSA's Resource Manual, available through your site supervisor, or at the National Mentoring Partnership website http://www.mentoring.org.
- Continue to check in on your mentee even after you have reported the bullying issue to the site supervisor. If you know that you won't be able to see your mentee in person for a while, you should find an alternative way of communication with your mentee such as e-mail or phone, but only if the site allows and your mentee feels comfortable with exchanging information.
- Make sure your mentee knows that you are there for them. At times a person that has been bullied can feel dejected and alone, you can help a mentee dealing with this by doing something as simple as just showing up and being a great active listener during and outside of mentoring sessions.
Mentoring for Diversity
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- The role of the mentor is to impart wisdom, advice and guidance to mentors. Mentees need to be empowered-to use their diversity, creativity, ideas and initiatives to pursue their dreams of achieving success.
- In a cross-cultural or cross-gender mentoring relationship, it is critical to understand how different the matches' assumptions may be about human behavior. Understanding cultural or gender-based assumptions will develop and strengthen the authenticity and trust essential for successful mentoring.
- To improve understanding, both mentoring partners need to be schooled in basic communication skills--those of listening, empathy, and appreciative inquiry--along with orientation into differing cultural, racial, and gender-based assumptions.
- Mentoring should include attention to developmental and relational processes, enduring mentor commitments, and exploration of similarities between mentor and mentee (including racial, ethnic, and cultural background). Matches could explore these similarities and differences by sharing stories about family traditions, favorite memories, and even favorite music.
- Mentoring USA's "Getting To Know You" and "Cultural Awareness Activities" help to facilitate the process of mentoring diversity. See your Site Supervisor or Program Manager for fun activities that will help you apply these tips to your mentoring relationship!
