Youth Mentoring Project

This project will develop a statewide mentoring program for youth with special health care needs. The project will first plan and conduct two Young Adult Forums that will bring together young adults (ages 21 to 28 years old) with special health care needs who have successfully transitioned from high school to the adult world. Participants will be asked to identify barriers as well as successful strategies in navigating transition. From the young adults who attended the Forum (anticipated 25 to 30 young adults in total), the project will identify a minimum of 20 young adults who would be willing to serve as mentors to youth with special health care needs currently in transition. In collaboration with the CCHSN, the project will screen and select young adult mentors. HDI will develop a standardized application form and review criteria, and will coordinate an application review team to select mentors. The project will provide mentor training for eligible prospective mentors. Face-to-face mentor training may again be held in two locations, depending upon mentor needs. Mentor training will include competency based components, and will be based upon: a) evidenced-based strategies for successful mentoring; and b) an analysis of the barriers to successful transition, as well successful strategies, identified by our young adult participants. Upon completion of the mentor training, the project will assist the Commission with matching mentors with youth with special health care needs who are currently in transition, and will continue to provide support and monitoring to the mentor/mentee matches. At the end of the project, we will bring mentors and mentees together for a final Peer-to-Peer Transition Support Network Summit to have individual mentors/mentees do presentations on how they benefited, identify successful mentoring strategies, barriers to successful mentoring, and to plan next steps for the Peer-to-Peer Transition Support Network. The project will conduct evaluations of all project activities, including the quality and impact of the mentor/mentee matches. The project will develop quarterly progress reports with due dates of October 31, January 31, and April 30; hold periodic conference calls or meeting with Commission staff to review progress; and develop a Final Report for the Commission describing each of the activities, evaluation summaries for each activity, and recommendations for sustaining the network into the future, to be submitted by July 31, 2014.