E-mail Content

Getting to know a youth in Camden may seem like a daunting task.  How will you relate?  What will you ask them?  How will they respond?  To ease these concerns, it is best to follow a clear plan for the e-mail communications.  Within this plan you can explore the interpersonal aspects of an e-Mentoring relationship, while keeping it focused on the support our trainees need while in our program.  To do this, we have adapted categories originally created by Achieve!Minneapolis, which yearly connects 1,424 Minneapolis students with e-Mentors from the community:

• Conversation.  A casual, conversational opening statement.  It is important for a trainee and an e-Mentor to share something more than Hopeworks.  This is a great time to talk about sports, favorite pastimes, movies, family, weekend activities, or anything else that you two might be able to collectively explore.  Most trainees automatically see adults as people who are older and never have any fun.  Talking about what brings joy to your life or things outside of work is a great way to break down that idea.

• Connection to Purpose.  Hopeworks empowers youth to identify and develop their D.R.E.A.M.S.  We do this through helping the youth create their own D.R.E.A.M.S. Plan.  This plan is theirs and they own and a responsible for their individual plan.  It describes their desired future (vision), lends a purpose to that future (mission), and lists their strengths which they use to work towards that future (strategies).  From this place, the trainee sets concrete, measurable objectives and action plans that are their dynamic realizable efforts, the things they do today, tomorrow and the next day to attain success.  This plan serves as a trainee's purpose for being at Hopeworks.  It is a critical piece in their development and self-understanding because it creates meaning for them around their daily activities and defines their passion.  Their plan is then shared with the entire Hopeworks community through an online format.  We want our e-Mentors to share in this openness.  Each week, we will ask our trainees to share a part of or item on their D.R.E.A.M.S. Plan with you.  That would then be an opportunity for you to respond constructively, offer suggestions and possibly relate to the trainee your life experiences where you have encountered or thought about something similar.  Through this, we can communicate the life-long value of planning.  If a trainee fails to include something about her or his plan, feel free to ask them about it.  They may be having difficulty crafting it or may have forgotten about it.  This subtle reminder helps us reinforce this essential part of our program.

• Connection to Skills.  Each week, we would like the e-Mentor and trainee to discuss something related to the objectives of the e-Mentoring program.  These discussion could center on marketable employment skills, professionalism, academic achievement, problem solving, creativity, analytic behaviors, or anything that promotes success in the workplace and anything that the workplace values or any aspect of leadership and anything that promotes effective leadership.  To assist in this process, we have created a topic guide that can incite ideas in both the e-Mentor and trainee.

• Conclusion.  This is the summarizing statement. It is a casual, conversational ending to the email. It is the perfect place to pose a question or to suggest some topics for the next conversation.  Several questions or topics are ideal to allow the trainee to respond to that which strikes them the most.  The e-mails that are the least successful end without a good resolution.  Since continuity is so important to the mentoring relationship, this part must be present in every e-mail.

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