Quality mentoring relationships have a resoundingly positive impact on our young people’s lives. Through MENTOR Indiana, IYI works to advance evidence and research-based mentoring practices, promote quality standards for mentoring, and to expand mentoring programming and opportunities that provide quality mentors and positive experiences for youth.
Why is Mentoring Important?
Young people need to know that someone cares about them. Their daily challenges can often make them feel like they don’t matter. Mentoring changes that. Research shows that a quality mentoring relationship can have a resoundingly positive impact on our young people’s lives. This extends beyond their personal growth and development and extends into their academic and future professional lives. For all its benefits, unfortunately, one in three young people will grow up without ever having a positive mentor.
MENTOR Indiana, the state affiliate of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, serves as a unifying catalyst for quality youth mentoring programs. By providing the leadership and infrastructure necessary to support the expansion of quality mentoring relationships, MENTOR Indiana is a valuable resource for mentors creating impact.
MENTOR Indiana focuses on:
- Advancing the quality of Indiana’s mentoring field by building relationships with new and existing mentoring programs and providing capacity-building trainings and technical assistance grounded in evidence-based approaches.
- Engaging a wide variety of public and private stakeholders to increase both the number of volunteer mentors as well as resources for the local mentoring field.
- Collecting data on a regular basis to describe the impact of mentoring in the broader community and identify gaps in the range of services needed.
- Expanding public and private support and investment in mentoring through public awareness and advocacy efforts that foster communities that prioritize quality youth mentoring.
In-Person | Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana
June 17-18, 2026
Session 1: Elements 1–8 – Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM EST
- Foundations of Mentoring – Values, Design, and Recruitment
- Enrollment and Training – Preparing Youth, Caregivers, and Mentors
Session 2: Elements 9-16 – Thursday, June 18, 2026 | 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM EST
- Relationship Management – Building, Supporting, and Celebrating Relationships
- Organizational Sustainability – Staffing, Community Engagement, Infrastructure, and Evaluation
Register Here
Virtual | May 11, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Strong mentoring relationships start with the right mindset. This session introduces the core principles that guide effective mentoring across programs, settings, and relationship types.
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Virtual | May 12, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Feeling seen, heard, and understood is at the heart of every strong mentoring relationship. In this session, participants will explore how emotional support and empathy help build trust and deepen connection with young people.
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Virtual | May 13, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
This session focuses on how joy, play, and shared activities can strengthen connections between mentors and young people.
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Virtual | May 14, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Mentoring is most effective when young people have a voice and an active role in shaping their experiences. This session explores how mentors can share power, encourage leadership, and create space for youth to express their ideas, goals, and perspectives.
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MENTOR Indiana, a strategic initiative of Indiana Youth Institute since 2008, empowers youth champions to deliver quality mentoring across the state of Indiana.
Want to learn more or have questions? Connect with IYI’s MENTOR Indiana Director, Mike Fye.
Looking for best practice support, tools, resources, and reviews of mentoring research? The National Mentoring Resource Center is the nation’s premier source of training, technical assistance, tools, research summaries, and other information for youth mentoring programs.
Each January, we come together as a community to ignite those passions and help turn those wildest dreams into reality with National Mentoring Month. By harnessing our collective voice, MENTOR advocates for mentorship, legislative priorities, and raises awareness for how one conversation, one experience, and one mentor can change a young person’s life.
MENTOR’s cornerstone publication, the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™, details research-informed and practitioner-approved Standards for creating and sustaining quality youth mentoring programs and consequently, impactful mentoring relationships.
