Deciding which direction your mentoring program will take shape is a huge decision. One of the first distinctions is whether to go informal or formal mentoring. An example of informal mentoring would be someone who grows up in the kitchen watching their mother cook, or watching their uncle work on cars in the garage. Formal mentoring falls more inline with someone who is doing an internship and they must weekly speak with their supervisor about how they are performing at the job site.

Personally, I would advocate for formal mentoring, which provides many benefits and is a powerful way to develop and build relationships which will stand the test of time. A type of formal mentoring is called covenant mentoring. Here, there are expectations on both sides of the relationship, mentor & student, to ensure that the process works. Some examples of this are that the mentor & student will meet weekly for at least an hour over the course of a year. Another might be that both mentor & student are committed to praying for each other. Feel free to obtain some of the resources that Authentic LA utilizes at the Mentoring Downloads page.