Ask program staff.

Most formal mentoring programs have a volunteer or paid staff person who will be a mentor’s principal connection to the mentoring program. While the program coordinator in your program may carry a different title, he or she is the key player on mentoring’s front line Typically, a program coordinator handles most of the best practices outlined in Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring. Once you begin mentoring, ongoing support will be the one that matters most. Whether mentors take advantage of the available support, most agree that it is vital to know they have someone to turn to if they can’t get their relationship off the ground, could use a sounding board, need a referral for a service they think their mentee needs, want help in resolving a specific issue, or just need to double-check that their mentoring relationship is on the right track.