	Volunteer Mentoring Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

VM 5: Matching

Sustained, positive matches are made based on mentors’ and service recipients’ strengths, needs, preferences, and interests.

VM 5.01

The organization considers information learned during screening and assessment when matching volunteers with service recipients.

Interpretation: Common matching criteria include: gender, race, ethnicity, culture, special needs, geographic proximity, personality and temperament, shared interests, strengths, and/or participants’ preferences for the match (including, for example, preferred activities or demographic characteristics).

VM 5.02

The organization helps the service recipient understand the mentor’s role and obtains the service recipient’s written, informed consent to the proposed match.

Interpretation: Minor children and youth, and dependent adults, may be limited in the extent to which they can approve of and consent to matches. See VM 5.03 for discussion of the involvement of parents, legal guardians, and custodians.

VM 5.03

Parents or legal guardians of children, youth, or dependent adults are involved in making and consenting to the match, and setting goals for the relationship.

Interpretation: Although it can be difficult to involve family members, an organization serving children, youth, or dependent adults should at minimum obtain written, informed consent to proposed matches from service recipients’ parents or legal guardians. If another organization (for example, a juvenile justice agency) retains temporary custody of the service recipient, it is sufficient to obtain consent from that organization. When other providers are also delivering services to the individuals being mentored and coordination is valued, program personnel can, with the agreement of service recipients and/or their parents, legal guardians, or custodians, discuss matches with appropriate personnel at the other involved organizations.

NA The organization does not serve children, youth, or dependent adults.

VM 5.04

Mentors receive relevant information about the person with whom they are matched prior to meeting the person.

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	PURPOSE: Individuals participating in Volunteer Mentoring Services develop supportive, positive relationships that contribute to the achievement of personal, social, and educational growth.

RELATED FILES


	VOLUNTEER An individual who performs services for an organization for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation, or receipt of compensation for services rendered. Such service must be offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied, from an employer. If the individual is otherwise employed by the same employer for which s/he volunteers, the individual cannot volunteer to perform the same type of services that s/he is paid to perform as an employee.


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	SERVICE RECIPIENT The individuals, groups, organizations, or communities that use, receive, or benefit from programs and services. Service recipients can include consumers, patients, family members, legal guardians, advocates, public/private organizations, employers, and purchasers. All are regarded as significant stakeholders served in a variety of agencies and practice settings.


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	CRITERIA Systematically developed, objective, and quantifiable statements used to assess the appropriateness of specific decisions, services, and outcomes.


	ETHNICITY An orientation toward and identification with a population group that shares national origin, religion, race, or language.


	CULTURE The customs, habits, values, skills, technology, beliefs, and religious, social, and political behaviors of a group of people in a specific period of time.


	SPECIAL NEEDS A designation used in reference to conditions or characteristics of a person that reflect a need for special care, services, or treatment. When the term is used in the context of adoption services, special needs refers to conditions that make a child harder to place for adoption. This includes children who are members of sibling groups, older children, children with disabilities, children of certain racial /ethnic backgrounds, etc. When the term is used in the context of foster care it refers to the need for a higher degree of specialized case services and attention due to mental and physical disabilities. When the term is used in the context of out-of-school time services, a child or youth may have special physical, behavioral, medical, emotional, or cognitive needs that should be addressed or accommodated. The term is also used in other contexts. See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.


	INFORMED CONSENT The explicit granting of permission by a consumer or his/her legal guardian to the service provider and organization to use a specific intervention or participate in research. The consent is predicated on full disclosure of the facts to enable the consumer to make a decision based on knowledge of the risks and alternatives.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	LEGAL GUARDIAN A person who has legal responsibility for the care and management of a person incapable of administering his/her own affairs. In the case of a minor child, the guardian is charged with the legal responsibility for the care and management of the child and of the minor child's estate.


	CUSTODY The care, control, and maintenance of a child. The court legally can award custody to an agency in abuse and neglect cases or to parents in divorce, separation, or adoption proceedings. Child welfare departments retain legal custody and control of major decisions for a child in foster care; foster parents do not have legal custody of the children for which they provide care.


	PROGRAM PERSONNEL All direct service and administrators or supervisors of direct services that are involved in the operation of the organization's social service programs. "Program personnel" does not include MIS, accounting, facilities, clerical, or other staff that are not involved in the provision or oversight of direct services.


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards