Effective Practices Collection: Recruiting Male Mentors

Originally published by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Abstract
Historically, men have volunteered for social service programs in lower numbers than women, and this absence is especially noticeable in mentoring programs. This effective practice offers tips from mentoring programs across the country on how to attract male mentors. These guidelines were compiled by Nancy Henry, Program Director, Volunteer Leadership Center, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, and shared on the NSSCTalk listserv in September, 2004. The practice lists additional resource materials.

Issue
Oftentimes it can be challenging to recruit enough males to serve as mentors for children and youth. Though cross-gender matches can work quite well, often programs want to provide positive male role models for boys and young men.

Action
The following effective practices for attracting greater numbers of male mentors are from mentor program staff around the country:

• Allow men to volunteer and mentor in group situations. (Some may feel daunted initially by the relationship-building challenge of one-on-one mentoring).
• Create a menu of volunteer activities with mentoring as the maximum commitment they can make. This allows men to observe your program in action and get comfortable with it before 'stepping up' to mentoring.
• Use other men to recruit. This is especially effective when the recruiter is also a mentor and can describe the experience firsthand.
• Alternatively, get the women in their lives to do the asking. Many men are talked into volunteering by wives, mothers, girlfriends, sisters or daughters. Consider asking all prospective female volunteers to give an application to at least one male friend.
• Approach national and local associations and groups that have a high concentration of male members. Veteran's groups, faith communities, professional and civic associations are all good sources.
• Make sure marketing materials get to where the men are. Besides the avenues listed above, consider outreaching at sporting events, auto shows, and the like.
• Ensure your marketing materials describe the benefits that come from mentoring. Help potential male mentors understand how they will be able to use the skills they already have in mentoring. Don't focus exclusively on the "warm fuzzies" of mentoring.
• Make sure prospective volunteers (both male and female!) know they will be oriented to their mentoring roles, and receive ongoing training and support once they've gotten started. People are more willing to participate when they know that mentoring is not a "sink or swim" proposition.

Context
Males can play an important role in mentoring relationships, especially in programs that serve at-risk youth, particularly boys. Although lack of males in these types of settings is acute, there isn't a substantial body of research or information nor clear body of knowledge concerning this issue. However, mentoring programs have begun to get creative to increase the representation of men in their volunteer mix.

Outcome
According to Stephanie Blackman, author of the 1999 National Service Fellows report, Recruiting Male Volunteers: A Guide Based on Exploratory Research, the impacts of recruiting male volunteers are many and varied. She proposes that male volunteers can:

• Expand an agency's base of donors, volunteers, in-kind services, and other support.
  Allow a social service program to serve more male clients or match them with male volunteers, or expand services.
• Provide different ideas and feedback to social service agencies.
• Exemplify the ways in which men can do and be good, both for society at large and for clients who most often see men in negative contexts (as an abuser or disciplinarian, for example).
• Enhance the experience of clients who are more comfortable or have more fun with men.
• Demonstrate that a social service issue is not solely a "women's issue" or a "men's issue" but important to all.
• Benefit from increased knowledge or understanding of social service, which may help them cope with issues in their own lives (when an adolescent son or daughter becomes homeless, for example).
• Diversify the circle of people with whom volunteers can interact, work, and make decisions.
• Help create an environment in which men are encouraged and expected to volunteer.
• Increase the number of people who are active players in social change.

This Effective Practice posted on September 15, 2004

Contact
Nancy Henry, Program Director Volunteer Leadership Center
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
101 SW Main Street, Suite 500
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: (503) 275-9611
E-mail: henryn@nwrel.org
Fax: (503) 275-0133
Website: http://www.nwrel.org/learns/

Resources
For more ideas regarding how to motivate and secure the commitment of male mentors, consult the following resources:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Pass it on. Volunteer recruitment manual. Outreach to African-American, Latino/a and other diverse populations. Philadelphia: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 1994.

Blackman, Stephanie. Recruiting Male Volunteers: A Guide Based on Exploratory Research. Washington, D.C: The Corporation for National and Community Service, 1999. http://www.nationalservice.org/research/fellows_reports/99/blackman.pdf

Ellis, Susan. The Volunteer Recruitment (and Membership Development) Book, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Energize, Inc., 2002.

Jucovy, L. Recruiting mentors: A guide to finding volunteers to work with youth. Technical Assistance Packet #3. Portland, OR: NWREL, National Mentoring Center, 2001. http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/pdf/packthree.pdf

National Mentoring Center Bulletin. Putting the "Men" Back into Mentoring. Portland, OR: NWREL, National Mentoring Center, v.2 (2), July 2004.
http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/

National Mentoring Center. Strengthening mentoring programs. Training Curriculum. Module #1. Targeted Mentor Recruitment. Portland, OR: NWREL, National Mentoring Center, 2000. http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/pdf/Mod1.pdf

The following resource(s) are available at the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Library:

Garringer, Michael, Ed. Getting Deep on Male Recruitment. The National Mentoring Center Bulletin, v.2 (2), July 2004, 10-15.Item Number: 220 B
Phone: 1-866-245-7378
E-mail: info@servicelearning.org
Website: http://www.servicelearning.org

Additional resources on mentoring are listed on the Mentor Works© Research page of the National Mentoring Partnership's website at:
http://www.mentoring.org

Related Site(s)

The National Mentoring Center
http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/

The National Mentoring Partnership
http://www.mentoring.org

Related Practice(s)
Recruiting male volunteers

Topic Area(s)
Program Management