Youth mentors are the last group of participants to consider. This team can vary in size and role to fit your event. Youth mentor applicants typically come from the students who participated the year before; they are familiar with the agenda, the activities and the exercises and can serve as a guide to the students participating this year. Their primary responsibility is guiding the action planning process, but they can also serve as assistants to the trainers in setting up and preparing exercises and activities. Details of their responsibilities at the event can be sent to them using the Youth Mentor Welcome Packet.

A refresher training on how to facilitate the action planning activities is ideal. Allocate three to four hours, at minimum, before camp begins, to walk through all of the activities, review the basics of facilitating a group and refresh their memory of the action planning process. If you can allow for six to eight hours, you can delve more into expanding their role and focusing on the group facilitation aspect of their responsibilities. This Mentor Training Agenda gives you an idea of topics that might need to be covered.

We highly recommend that any youth mentors who are not familiar with the program or agenda be given a more detailed training that includes how to facilitate group discussions as well as an opportunity to experience each of the activities as a team. If possible, it would be very beneficial if they attend a basic CERT training course before they are expected to assist in implementing your training.

Two types of personalities work well in the youth mentor role:

• The outgoing, engaging, friendly-to-everyone leader who is great at getting the attention of large groups and giving instructions.
• The quiet leader who can draw out responses from your participants and knows how to fade into the background when it’s time for work to happen.

You need both! You need the first type to give activity instructions and keep the group moving forward. You need the second group to process the activities and lead the action planning sessions without telling the students what they should do.