Hello all

I'd like to share my experience of facilitating the design of a
structured peer-mentoring program for formerly incarcerated and
court-involved men and women in New York City.

I'm the Director of the College Initiative. Founded in 2002, we have
offices at The Fortune Society and LaGuardia Community College. We are
part of the City University of New York-wide Black Male Initiative and
we work in collaboration College Opportunity to Prepare for Employment
on ten CUNY campuses.

Our mission is: to connect men and women in New York City who have
been incarcerated or have had involvement with the criminal justice
system with opportunities for higher education; to provide a range of
academic and support services that promote successful enrollment in
college and completion of degrees; to serve as a guiding force for
students to realize their full potential as gainfully employed
individuals, family members, informed citizens and community leaders.

Our basic services include outreach, student recruitment and
correspondence with prisoners planning for release; orientation,
assessment and academic counseling; academic preparation for college
placement exams; reentry support in collaboration with an extensive
network of CBO partners; access to financial aid, scholarships and
help with outstanding student loans; tutoring and future academic and
workforce planning.

With the support of the NYC Mayor's Office of Adult Education, we
began a 15-week design phase last March. The team consisted of five
current CI students who will also serve as the first group of peer
mentors; CI counselors; specialists and administrators from CUNY's
successful higher education peer-mentoring programs; and a paid
consultant from the School of Design Strategies (one of the five
Schools that comprise Parsons the New School for Design). The
consultant is a specialist in collaborative service design, a practice
that brings the insights of all stakeholders into the process of
program design. She is a student of Ezio Manzini, whom some may know.
The team looked at the best practices of successful mentoring programs
within CUNY's Black Male Initiative and the CUNY Future Now program as
well as models used by the NYC Mayor's Office of Continuing Education
and The Fortune Society, the largest reentry organization in NYC. In
the design phase, the highest priority was given to the collective
experience of mentors in training and the knowledge of CI Academic
Counselors, who are all former students of the program.

The team set recruitment standards (potential peer mentors will have
at least two semesters of college experience and a GPA of 3.0 or
higher and preference will be given to those studying in human service
areas) and determined that the training will be structured as a
college course (meeting for two hours per week for fifteen weeks
during the regular CUNY academic semesters) . We are in the process of
securing accreditation from CUNY for the course, which will allow peer
mentors to earn three credits towards their degrees for successful
completion of the training. Mentoring activities will involve five
mandated one-on-one meetings per semester between the mentor and
student, as well as regular group meetings during semester. The group
sessions will be campus-based, involving all of the mentor/mentee
pairs attending that institution (CUNY has twenty-three campuses
throughout New York City’s five boroughs). The focus of the one-on-one
contacts will be on assessing and facilitating the student’s academic
progress and preparation for the academic milestones that occur each
semester (such as midterm and final exams), as well as providing
connections as needed to supportive services available through CI and
our partner agencies including academic and financial aid counseling,
linkages to employment, housing resources, etc. The group meetings
will serve as support groups, allowing students to share their
experiences and concerns as well as provide social connections and
motivation. Each mentor will receive a contracted payment of $500 for
each student for each year. At the discretion of CI, mentors may take
on up to five students per year. The mentoring services will be
provided for at least two semesters to each participating student.

Guided by the experience of our students, the team developed the
curriculum and materials to be presented in the training course,
including: an instructor’s manual; mentor's troubleshooting guide
(covering common student problems and potential solutions); a timeline
of mentor/student interactions for a typical semester; a peer-mentor
job description and code of conduct; mentor/student contracts; campus
and reentry resources maps; and a set of outreach and communications
materials including a DVD documentary introduction to the program. If
there is interest I can post pdfs of the toolkit materials.

We found that the collaborative design approach was very productive. I
think we now have a model that is capable of evolving and expanding
and a training program that will utilize and embody the experiences of
each successive group of mentors.

All the best

Michael

Michael Carey
Director
College Initiative
PO Box 966
New York, NY 10116
347 998 5861