Breakout-Session Presenters:

Joe Higgins, Mesa County Partners Executive Director - "Fund Raising for Mentoring Programs"  Joe has been the Director of Mesa County Partners for 30 years.  He is responsible for the fundraising and financial management of a $2.2 million budget.  As a member of the Partners Mentoring Association, he has provided technical assistance in starting up other mentoring programs in both Colorado and Arizona.  His partners programs include one-on-one mentoring for high risk youth, restitution/community service work program for juvenile offenders, and the Western County Youth Conservation Corps - a training/employment program for young adults.  Joe has a Masters in Public Administration from Arizona State University.    He was also the recipient of the Colorado Nonprofit Assocation's William Funk Award for Building Stronger Communities in 2011.

This workshop will be a discussion format, allowing for input and sharing from the participants.  We all know that Mentoring works.  So why is it so hard to generate enough funding to meet the demand.  Joe Higgins will share tools that have worked for him over the past 30 years while asking for input and ideas from participants.  Some topics will include: 1. Need to Develop Diversity of Funding Sourcesl 2. How to use Board Members and Volunteers; 3. Changing our approach from asking for donations to involving potential investors who want to make an impact; 4. Marketing and its relationship with Fundraising. 

Dace West - Director of Strategic Partnerships (DOSP),  - "Collaborations"    Dace's primary work involves develoment and delivery of training and technicial assistance to better connect government and community: managing DOSP's community collaborative efforts; leading DOSP's nonprofit capital support projects; and overseeing the Office's energy efficiency priorities.  Prior to coming to the Office of Strategic Partnerships, Dace worked for over a decade in a variety of nonprofit agencies with a primary focus on organizational and resource development, including serving most recently as the Executive Director of the HealthBridge Alliance.  Dace holds a Masters in Nonprofit Management from Regis University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Colorado. 

Dace will lead a panel discussion on how nonprofits can best work within collaborations.  You will hear from panelists representing the faith community, government, schools, and nonprofit.  The panelists include:

Christine Miller (Denver Public Schools): Christine has over 21 years of experience in youth development, family engagement, and collaborative resource efforts.  Most recently Christine was employed as the Denver Youth Development Initiative resource advocate which was dedicated to expanding collaboration of nonprofits at East High School in Denver.  She transitioned to her present role as the East High School Community Partner in July of 2011.  Christine is a regular panelist at conferences dedicated to youth development.

Alice Pugh (Executive Director, Full Circle of Lake County): Alice B. Pugh founded Full Circle of Lake County, Inc. twenty years ago.  Full Circle started as an intergenerational mentoring program and has grown to include all mentors, paid mentoring, after-school programming, immigrant integration and parent education. 

Pastor Del Phillips (Colorado Coalition of Faith).  Pastor Del is the Chairman of the Colorado Coalition of Faith.  This organization was formed in the aftermath Hurricane Katrina to pull together pastors, churches, community leaders, and professionals representing nearly evey facet of support throughout the Colorado community.  Its ongoing mission is to provide immediate on site response with coordinated relief efforts in the face of local emergencies and every day support for families in need.

Kimberly Armitage (YMCA of Metro Denver).  Kimberly is currently the Executive Director of the Aurora Branch working with Home Owners Associations offering YMCA programs to the Community.  They collaborate with a variety of community organizations, offering programs and events.  She is also a member of the Aurora Rotary Club and works with international students as a focus area.

Heather Taussig, Ph.D - Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry.  Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect.  University of Colorado School of Medicine.  - "What Works and What's it Worth?"  Heather Taussig, Ph.D is a psychologist and associate professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  She directs the Fostering Healthy Futures (FHF) program at the Kempe Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, which consists of a mentoring and skills group program for preadolescent youth in foster care.  The federally-funded FHF program is being tested in a randomized controlled trial, and program outcomes have been published in leading journals.  Dr. Taussig served on the U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Panel on Mentoring, examining the science associated with mentoring programs nationally, and was a Research Fellow at the 2011 Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring at Portland State University.  She is an international awardee for her work on child abuse and neglect from the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Do you "know" your program works but have trouble demonstrating it?  Do you feel that evaluation is just something you have to do because it is required by the funders?  Is your staff already taxed and cannot devote time to evaluation activities?  Have you ever felt that the money your organization has spent on evaluation was not worth it?  Have you been confused or disappointed by the results?  This interactive workshop will begin with a brief overview of different types of mentoring program evaluation strategies, using examples to illustrate when each method should be used and what types of information you will glean from each approach.  The promises and pitfalls of program evaluation will be reviewed.  Participants are encouraged to bring their own challenges and successes with program evaluation to the workshop for discussion.

Dr. Jerry Yager - Director of Education- "Being a Brain-wise Mentor: How relationships foster growth in at-risk children & adolescents."  Dr. Jerry has more than 30 years of experiencew in the assessment and treatment of neglected, abused and traumatized children.  He joined the Denver Children's Advocacy Center 2011 to pursue his passion of educating professionals who work with children and adolescents about development and the impact of abuse and neglect on the brain.  Jerry and his training team conduct workshops and provide individual and organization consultation throughout and Colorado and nationally.    (This learning opportunity is possible thanks to the generosity of the Deevy Family and the WJD Foundation; in honor and memory of Sister LaVonne, whose love of children continues to influence and transform the lives of children, and those who care for them.)

Young Brains are designed to learn from older brains.  One of the most significant findings of neuroscience over the past twenty years is that the brain is not a static organ, but changes in response to environmental experiences.  Changes in the brain manifest in the emergence of increasingly more complex behaviors that require a response from adults to keep childhood development on track.  The availability of an attendtive, attuned, nurturing responsive adult is by far the most powerful stimuli in developing a child's world, but changes in our society have decrease the regular attention of caring adults in the lives of our children.  Volunteer mentoring programs have the potential to fill this gap for vulnerable families in our communities.  Participants will gain a clear understanding of how to incorporate critical bio-psychosocial developmental principles into the mentoring relationship, thereby increasing the potential for successful outcomes. Dr Yager will present 2 sessions: the first one focusing on children and the second one on adolescents.  There will be overlap in the content.

Luis Villareal - Executive Director, Save Our Youth - "A Family Systems Approach to growing a mentor relationship; the subtleties of the dynamic relationship" Luis Villareal is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the Founder and President of Save Our Youth Mentoring, an 18 year old mentoring program for at-risk youth in Denver-Metro Urban Communities.  Luis and his staff have developed a pratical mentoring model addressing the ABC's of start-up, mentor and staff development, and ongoing management for successful mentoring programs that keeps mentor match longevity as a priority.  For a total of 36 years, Luis has served impoverished individuals and families to help them develop and learn the necessary tools for spiritual, emotional and educational health, growth and success.  Luis has worked multiple settings including community mental health, youth work, inner-city pastoral care and mentor consultation.

The perennial challenge of all mentoring programs is to first find mentors, and then to keep them engaged in their mentee relationship long-term.  Without mentors, there are no mentees.  Mentors and Mentees too often terminate their relationship prematurely because they cannot adjust to the demands the relationship poses.  Mentoring relationships are dynamic.  Mentors, mentees and mentor supervisors play equal and integral roles in all successful mentoring relationships.  Utilizing a Family Systems Approach this workshop will provide skills to understand how mentor supervisors can use their role in the "mentoring system" to effect a positive and healthy mentoring relationship.  Too often mentor supervisors keep themselves out of the mentoring equation, and success and blame is handed to the mentor or the mentee.

Jon Roberts - Trainer, Colorado Youth At Risk - "Coaching Kids Effectively"  Jon is a Real Estate professional by day and a volunteer mentor and trainer by night with Colorado Youth At Risk (CYAR), which is an agency with an exceptional mentor training program.  As a former U.S. Army Captain, Jon has always valued working with young people and empowering the next generation.  Jon has been a volunteer mentor for many years to several young men.  He now serves as one of Colorado Youth At Risk's lead Mentor Training Facilitators.  He has been training CYAR mentors on their mandatory 24 hour curriculum and the Youth Mentoring Collaborative Training series for over 5 years.

Jon knows that Mentors are coaches and one of the most common questions he hears is "how do I coach effectively?"  This workshop is designed to help program managers and volunteer mentors feel competent at providing power coaching to young people.  In this class you will learn: the fundamentals of great coaching; how to reinforce behavior that works; how to give advice that gets listened to; how to deal with breakdowns and program behaviors.

Finessa Ferrell - Director, The Partnership for Families and Children - "Promoting Attendance, Attachment & Achievement: The Role of a Mentors"    As the Director of the National Center of School Engagement, a national leader in school reform, Ms. Ferrell works with school districs, youth-serving organizations and individual schools to implement strategies that result in students attending school, attaching to school and achieving in school.  Ms. Ferrell has done extensive training on the adolescent brain, truancy, drop-out prevention, effective mentoring, youth empowerment, bullying prevention and school climate change.

Many things we do, both at school and at home detach rather than attach young poeple to the school community.  Mentors play a powerful role in helping young people see themselves and their school lives differently.  It is also critical that a flawed premise be exposed: that a student who attends school and sits in a classroom will experience academic success.  This is not true, nor has it ever been.  Learning is active process, not a passive one.  Student motivation and interest is an essential ingredient.  Yet a great deal of school-based decision making rests on the premise that if only the student would come to school they would achieve in school.  This workshop will focus on NCSE and others' research that has culminated in our theory of change: that addressing only attendance does not result in achievement unless the student has motivation to learn, wants to change, understands the relevance of education to their own goals and that the student can visualize the role eduation plays in a positive vision of their own future.

Gully Stanford, Director of Partnerships, CollegeInColorado - "Mentors Can Be Career Guides with CollegeInColorado as your Guidebook."  Gully leads the outreach arm of the Colorado Department of Higher Education.  Born and Raised in Ireland, he spent 35 years in the regional theatre movement, coming to Denver in 1981, where he served as Managing Director of the Denver Center Theatre Company and Public Affairs Director for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.  Gully was elected to the State Board of Education in 1996.  He joined the Department of Higher Education in 2004 as the Director of the Statewide GEAR UP Program and switched to College In Colorado in 2006.

College in Colorado is the free portable online one-stop shop for information about planning for career and college success-regardless of wealth, background or documentation status.  90% of the jobs in the 21st Century will require at least some post-secondary training, yet the Colorado pipeline is broken.  Mentors can be immensely helpful to mentees in exploring career pathways that are right for them.  Attendees will learn about the free resources at www.collegeincolorado.org which provides mentors with information and links to real, timely and effective infromation about careers, college and financial aid.  This training will also highlight resources for working with undocumented youth. This is a great workshop for program staff to take back to their volunteer mentors.

Alice Pugh - Executive Director, Full Circle of Lake County - "Mentoring Magic from the Mountatins"   Through 20 years of keeping mentoring alive and well in Leadville, Ms. Pugh has learned how important relationships can be.  She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador (1980-1983).  She has helped empower young people as a high school employment counselor, disability career coach, and as the Executive Director of Full Circle.  She is a storyteller and loves the outdoors.  "Full Circle is my third child."  "Live well, be mindful, laugh often, and leave the world a better place than you found it and always believe in peace."

Alice B. Pugh founded Full Circle of Lake County, Inc. twenty years ago.  Full Circle started as an intergenerational mentoring program and has grown to include all mentors, paid mentoring, after-school programming, immigrant integration and parent education.  This workshop will utilze interactive activities to understand brain development and the role of mentoring as well as a faciliated discussion on how to re-energize mentor recruitment particulary in rural areas.  Matching Latino youth and engaging their families will also be explored.  

Gizane Indart, PsyD - Denver Child Advocacy Center - "Signs and Symptoms of Child Abuse and Neglect"  Gizane is a bilingual and bicultural professional with over 20 years of experience working with traumatized children and their families. Gizane is a ChildTrauma fellow at the ChildTrauma Academy under the direction of Dr. Bruce Perry. She is a seasoned public speaker and trainer, presenting locally, nationally and internationally on the impact of abuse and neglect in early development, attachment difficulties in children exposed to maltreatment, and sexualized behaviors in children. Gizane is a contributing author to The Web of Meaning, by Gail Ryan and Associates (1999 Safer Society Press), writing on the short-term outcomes of sexual abuse. Gizane has served on the Kempe Children's Center Perpetration Prevention Study Group since 1992; she is also a member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, the Advisory Counsel for the Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families and the Women's Foundation of Colorado Program Committee. 

Conference Info:

Jen Krafchick, Ph.D. & Lindsey Weiler, M.S. - Colorado State University - "Campus Corps: Therapeutic Mentoring for At-risk Youth."  Lindsey Weiler, M.S. is a doctoral studetn in Applied Developmental Science at Colorado State University with a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.  She is a co-developer of Campus Corps and has extensive clinical experience working with at-risk youth.  Her doctoral work focuses on prevention programming and evaluation, data analysis, and outcome assessment for Campus Corps.  Jen Krafchick, Ph.D., CFLE is and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Human Development and Family Studies and the University Honors Program at CSU.  She currently serves at the Project Director for Campus Corps and teh Assistant Director of the Center for Couple and Family Therapy.  Dr. Krafchick earned her Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Studies with an emphasis in Social Justice Education, her Masters in MFT, and a certificate in Women's Studies.

Campus Corps is an evidence-based therapeutic mentoring program that partners university service-learning students with at-risk youth referred through the juvenile justice system, local school districts, and community agencies.  Using a family systems perspective, Campus Corps provides weekly one-on-one and group mentoring sessionson the CSU campus.  This presentation will focus on Campus Corps' unique approaches to mentoring and how other programs may include these components in their programs, how to intergrate best-practice mentoring strategies to a service-learning course, and strategies to enhance partnerships for mentoring.  Results from the Campus Corps program evaluation with be included.

Afternoon Learning Circles:

Soledad Lowe & Karmen Pittenger - The Buddy Program "Volunteer Screening: Beyond the Background Check"  Sole Lowe, Senior Program Coordinator, Bilingual Liaison, has been with the Buddy Program since 2002.  For ten years, she worked to screen and train quality volunteers and has been influential in developing the current screening process at the Buddy Program.  She has an AA in Business and a BA in Art and English Translation.  She is originally from Argentina.  Her co-presenter is Karmen Pittenger, MSW, Director of Youth and Family Services for the Buddy Program.  She has been with the Buddy Program since 2003 has been instrumental in developing the Buddy Program's exemplary screening process.  Karmen also serves on the Child Protection Teams with Eagle and Pitkin County Child Protective Services. 

Screening Mentors is a critical step in any mentoring organization.  In this presentation you will learning about key screening steps that are "beyond the background check" in order to fully understand whether or not the applicant is suitable for your program.  Staff will share examples of a Mentor interview, reference checks, websites and other methods used to fully get to know your volunteer applicants.  Participants will also leave with a better understanding of "red flags" and a more well-rounded approach to screening adult volunteer mentors.

Sally Stoker & Jon Roberts - "Mentor Recruitment and Mentor Retention" with Guest Presention from Mile High United Way and their campaign to recruit 3000 volunteers to work with youth.

Sally Stoker, MSW., is a career educator who worked in the public schools in Colorado for 25 years as both a teacher and a school counselor.  She is currently the Director of Education and Training with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado (BBBSC) and has been with the agency for 5 ½ years.  The mission of BBBSC is to help children reach their full potential through professionally supported one- to- one volunteer mentoring relationships. Ms. Stoker is responsible for providing resources for the staff, volunteers, and families who are committed to creating successful mentoring relationships that support the youth we serve in achieving success both inside and outside of school.

Jon is a Real Estate professional by day and a volunteer mentor and trainer by night with Colorado Youth At Risk (CYAR), which is an agency with an exceptional mentor training program.  As a former U.S. Army Captain, Jon has always valued working with young people and empowering the next generation.  Jon has been a volunteer mentor for many years to several young men.  He now serves as one of Colorado Youth At Risk's lead Mentor Training Facilitators.  He has been training CYAR mentors on their mandatory 24 hour curriculum and the Youth Mentoring Collaborative Training series for over 5 years.

This learning circle will encourage participants to share best practices in mentor recruitment and mentor retention.  The idea is for mentoring personnel from around the state to share, brainstorm, and discuss best practices in these two critical areas.  There will also be a brief presentation regarding the large volunteer mentor recruitment initiative currently underway through Mile High United Way.