Introduction
Through these activities mentors and mentees are supported in the process of:
- Deciding what is important to them and making good decisions about what they want to do and accomplish.
- Making choices based on strengths and interests as they have the greatest chance for successful outcomes when there is a good match between their interests and abilities and the goals they have selected.
- Setting short-term and long-term goals. They learn to set intermediary short-term goals in order to work incrementally toward reaching their long-term goals.
- Putting together workable action plans. They learn to develop reasonable and progressive actions that would result in accomplishing a step in the process toward achieving their short-term goals. They learn to compare actual outcomes with expected outcomes and make the necessary adjustments to keep their plan on track.
- Identifying and anticipating problems that may come up. They prepare to take action by anticipating and trying to predict what will happen as a result of their actions and decide if they want to move forward or modify the plan. They can rehearse their actions in a supportive environment before putting their plan into action.
- Communicating in ways that support personal goals. They learn to effectively communicate about their goals and their plan of action toward achieving those goals. They also gain experience communicating about problems that may arise and, through discussions with teachers and mentors, they learn to employ creative problem-solving strategies and negotiate toward solutions.
