Become a Creative Mentoring Business Partner

Join our team of business partners from throughout Delaware.

Many of our mentors are full-time employees who take time to mentor during their regular work hours, thanks to their employers' desire to give back to the community and help children in need. Of those mentors:

57% say they feel better and/or are more productive when they return to work after mentoring, and
46% say they have a better feeling toward their employer because they are able to mentor.

Business partners generously agree to support their employees who would like to mentor in local schools by allowing them to leave work for one hour a week (either paid or unpaid). In exchange, they get more loyal and satisfied employees who appreciate their employers' support and they support the communities in which they work.

Connecting Generations will support your company and your mentors by:

Assisting in the recruiting of employee/members to participate in a Creative Mentoring Program.
Conducting personal reference checks and State Police criminal background checks on all partner applicants.
Maintaining a database of all employees/members who apply to mentor.
Providing mentor certification training and training manual to all volunteers.
Providing a staff liaison person who will work with the business/organization contact person to assist in recruiting mentors and develop the ongoing relationship.
Training the business/organization contact person in the operation of a Creative Mentoring Program and intake procedures.
Being available to facilitate a support group and continuing education sessions during the school year as requested.
Providing each certified mentor with a mentor newsletter four times a year and access to our Resource Library.
Providing a system of certification renewal for all certified mentors. Renewal is suggested every two years.
Providing each business/organization involved at a particular school with a copy of that school's year-end report. All business/organization partners will receive a summary of year-end of statistics.
Including name of business/organization in appropriate public relations material.

Successful Business Partners:

Involve all levels of leadership in showing support of employee/member involvement in mentoring.
Develop a document that articulates the organization's support of the Creative Mentoring Program and any organizational regulations governing employee/member volunteers (such as the amount of release time granted each employee per year, available flex time, etc.)
Allow employees release time, flex-time, or a little extra time at lunch to enable them to participate.
Designate a person as coordinator who will work directly with Creative Mentoring and the school mentor program coordinator to ensure that a viable and successful volunteer opportunity is available to employees/members.
Encourage employees/members to complete Creative Mentoring's mentor training and year-end Mentor Survey.
Establish a mentor recognition program.

It is extremely helpful if the mentoring coordinator attends one of the mentor training sessions so that s/he is more aware of what is expected of mentors.

For more information about joining as a business partner, contact Stephanie Ferrell, Director of Development, at 302.656.2122 ext. 14 or sferrell@connecting-generations.org or Rachel Markowitz, Manager of Training and Recruitment, at 302.656.2122 ext. 15 or rmarkowitz@connecting-generations.org.