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Title: CalWORKs
Mentoring Program
College: Chaffey College
5885 Haven Avenue, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737
College Contact:
Kathy Dutton,
Director of Economic Development
909-941-2730 or
Kathy.Dutton@chaffey.edu
Target population:
Students eligible
for/participating in CalWORKs
Goals: To build student
self-confidence and work readiness skills.
Description:
Chaffey College’s
CalWORKs Mentoring Program pairs students with business/industry
mentors that match their career interests. Often, economically
disadvantaged students (who can also be single parents or displaced
homemakers) don’t see themselves as potentially successful. The
program recruits mentors, who are often CEO’s or individuals with
positions of authority, and matches them with students who have an
interest in similar occupational areas.
The mentors help students develop career pathways, network with
other business/industry professionals, enhance communication and
other workplace skills, and encourage success at school, home and
work. Mentors and students are encouraged to hold weekly meetings
and attend professional meetings and other business/industry
functions so that the student is exposed to a wide range of career
opportunities and contacts.
Staffing: Economic
Development Division and CalWORKs staff members share placement
tasks, with the hope that staffing will become more formalized
during the next school year.
Facilities, equipment, materials:
Office space
Costs, funding source: When the program
began in 2001, funding from a Region 9 Collaborative mini-grant
provided for the development of a mentor database and staff
resources to assist students. Currently, the program operates using
Workforce Development grants and CalWORKs funds.
Outreach and marketing:
A program brochure has been developed to promote the program. The
Director of Economic Development routinely markets the program at
business/industry and community events, and CalWORKs students are
encouraged to participate in a mentorship as part of their 32-hour
“work-activities” Self-Initiated Program requirement.
Evidence of effectiveness:
Originally, the program was expected to take place over one semester
but student and mentor demand for on-going placements has kept
program services in place for four years. Many mentor/student
professional relationships have continued beyond the 32-hour
requirement. Former mentors willingly re-enroll as mentors to new
students.
Students in mentorships are less likely to drop out of college
courses because they don’t want to disappoint their mentor, and
there is a noticeable “professional awareness of self” as they gain
confidence in their ability to succeed in the workplace. As one
example, a mentor/student relationship at the Leroy Hanes Center for
Children and Family resulted in the creation of a job position for
the student upon completion of the mentorship. The former student
now promotes the Center at community meetings and public events – a
skill that was developed through her mentoring experience.
As a result of the program’s success, the college has begun to
explore expanding the program into local high schools, using
CalWORKs students that have completed a mentorship to then mentor a
high school student in turn.
Suggestions for replication:
Relationships have to be built and maintained in a productive manner
– between the college and the student, between the college and
employer, and between the employer and the student.