Our Approach

BEST Kids' Program Philosophy

Youth Participation
 As mentors guide mentees through life, they are providing a safety net for mentees to learn how to make healthy and positive life decisions for themselves. Youth are given agency in the mentoring relationship and the opportunity to learn from challenges in a safe space. 

Mastery of Skills
​At the beginning of their mentoring relationship, each pair establishes a specific goal to work towards together. By achieving these goals, our youth can build self-esteem as they witness the tangible results of their hard work.

Building Social Skills
Through mentorship, mentees  learn basic life skills, including how to have healthy relationships. Mentors model positive examples of social skills to their mentees through their individual relationships and in group settings at Peer Group.

Having Fun
Most importantly, mentorship is fun. Whether it's through creative outings, informative programs, or learning opportunities at Peer Group, we strive to provide time to strengthen both group and one-on-one relationships through having fun.

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Intentional Mentoring
​& Goal Setting 

BEST Kids uses a one-on-one, community based model for mentoring for various reasons. Most notably, a community-based model allows mentors to remain consistent in a young person's life, no matter where they live or go to school. By ensuring that every mentee is matched with one mentor, relationships are able to delve deeper than if in a group setting, providing the youth with intentional, individualized attention. 

BEST Kids prepares the groundwork of a strong and trusting mentor relationship from the very first introduction. At the first meeting, mentors and mentees to get to know one another under the guidance of BEST Kids staff and with the caregiver present. Matches also decide on a goal to achieve at their initial meeting. Throughout their relationship, the match spends time working towards their goal, providing the youth with concrete life skills along the way. Goals can include riding a bike or writing in cursive, to managing a bank account and learning to cook healthy meals.

Individualized Support
​& Intensive Training

Individualized Support: Every mentoring relationship is assigned to one of our full-time Mentoring Support Specialists, who provide individual support, coaching, and monitoring for each of our matches. Our Mentoring Support Specialists connect with mentors, mentees, and caregivers once per month at minimum in order to assess what progress being made in mentoring goals, safety and satisfaction with the relationship, and coach and encourage during difficult situations. 

Intensive Training: BEST Kids provides a high level of expert-led training, including pre-service training and monthly ongoing training sessions for mentors. The training sessions are frequently conducted by field experts and cover essential topics such as relationship development, managing traumatic stress, fostering positive youth development, and setting realistic goals with your mentee.

Peer Groups

College & Career Readiness 

Quality is Key

Separated between different age groups, Peer Groups offer experiential learning experiences for mentees and mentors, while offering the opportunity to meet other youth and volunteers in the program. Peer Group activities allow mentees to develop a positive sense of self and to acquire team, social, and life skills. Each group participates in a different, age-appropriate activity on a monthly basis, designed to expose the youth to potential interest, careers, and experiences. Some examples include video game and web design, theater and improv classes, rock climbing and football clinics, and arts and crafts. 

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Our college and career preparation program provides our youth with access to critical skills and resources for academic enrichment and workforce development through the delivery of an evidence-based curriculum, offered weekly to cohorts of middle and high school-aged at-risk youth at our partner schools. Topics include Self-Exploration and Goal Setting, College Admissions and Financial Aid, Resume Writing and, Interviewing Skills. Our weekly after-school program is coupled with monthly Saturday sessions, where mentees participate in workshops, and learn about various career pathways. Mentees also participate in college campus visits, internships and job shadowing opportunities.

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BEST Kids is a proud member of the National Quality Mentoring System through MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership. Research suggests that quality mentoring programs follow nationally recognized best practices called the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring.TM. Under the leadership of MENTOR, a process has been developed for mentoring programs to assess and improve program practices using evidence-based standards under the National Quality Mentoring System (NQMS). BEST Kids engages in this process every four years. BEST Kids recently completed the rigorous assessment that connects research to the daily practices of existing mentoring programs here in the local area. This process culminated in BEST Kids once again being awarded the NQMS Gold Partner in 2024, certifying that the organization meets nationally recognized evidence-based practices and quality standards for mentoring that are safe and effective.

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