'Mentor Monthly' Newsletter

September 2024

Bloomerang Edition

Mentor's Corner

Thank you so much for your patience and flexibility as we introduced our new volunteer platform, Bloomerang, last month. As YMI grows in the number of schools, mentees, mentors, and matches, we've been interested in ways to work with your more effectively and efficiently.

This month we're taking time to dive a bit deeper into some of the benefits of Bloomerang to YOU, and how to navigate them. If you have specific questions, you can email me HERE or I'd love to visit you at mentoring!

MEETING REMINDERS

• All mentors receive a reminder email 24 hours before their meeting
• Mentors can update their notifications within the app to also receive a reminder 15-60 minutes before a meeting

COMMUNICATION

• Most communications with your Campus Coordinator (CC) will still take place via email
• CC's may make a "broadcast" through the app for important information or reminders. You will receive these as a notification IF you have your phone settings set up to receive notifications from individual apps. If not, you will only receive this information as an email.

While we know everyone has different communication preferences, we hope to start moving toward consistent messaging across the organization.

VIEW YOUR SCHEDULE/DECLINE SHIFT

• Log in at any time to see your upcoming, and past, shifts.
• Have a conflict? You can click on a shift and unschedule yourself from the meeting. It will send a notification to your Campus Coordinator

CALENDAR SYNC

• Miss the calendar invites from 2023-24 school year? Bloomerang allows you to sync your schedule to Google Calendar or import it into other calendar programs.
• When you're logged into the web version of the platform, you'll navigate yourself to the "My Shifts" page. Once there you'll find an "Add to Calendar" dropdown on the far right.

OCTOBER UPDATES

• Tutorial videos on the Mentor Resources page
• Volunteer schedules for 2nd semester added
• Ability to communicate with other mentors at your school

QPR Training - We encourage YMI mentors to attend a Question, Persuade, and Refer training when possible. The Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide is hosting a VIRTUAL QPR training on Tuesday, October 8, 9 - 11 am. If interested, you can register HERE. Please let Megan know of any trainings you complete.

Kick-Off to Mentoring - A big thank you to all who attended our Kick-Off to Mentoring last week! It was great to see so many familiar faces, and new ones, after a long summer break. We're excited to see this event continue to grow, and have the opportunity to engage with our mentors, mentees, and their families.

Cheers to our mentors celebrating their five, three, and one year

 anniversaries with YMI!

Five year - ROLE MODEL

Chase Elliott Matt Patterson

Three year - ENCOURAGER

Brooke Brand Missy Chapman

One year - MENTOR

Jaimie Cairns Amy Condle