For mentors

Mentors are lay leaders of any congregation, counselors, and steady people whose own lives show where the path leads. The founder described them as "people I would like to be like".

The five gates

A mentor account stays inactive until a coordinator marks all five done.

1. Application. A short form about you and why you would like to mentor.
2. Interview. A conversation with a coordinator.
3. Background check. As local law and the program require.
4. Safeguarding training. How to spot risk, how to respond, and when to step back.
5. Signed rules. You agree to the rules below in writing.

The time it takes

• Contact 2 or 3 times a week with a new mentee, tapering to about once a week. Calls are often 20 to 60 minutes.
• A short contact log after each conversation (date, how, how long) and a weekly read of the seven shared areas.
• A monthly review with each mentee.
• Three mentees at most.
• Your own Tier I. Mentoring costs energy, so keep your own lamp full first.

The rules

• Women mentor women and men mentor men, or a married couple mentors together.
• Confidentiality is an ethical commitment. What a mentee shares stays with you, except where someone may be at risk. Then you raise it with the safeguarding lead.
• Messages go through the program's three-way thread with the coordinator, between 7 AM and 9 PM in the other person's time. Messages outside those hours are flagged.
• No private photos, and no money, gifts or promises in either direction.
• You are not a professional. Don't diagnose, prescribe or counsel beyond your role. Encourage professional help, and use the crisis card when it is needed.
• Use the "I'm worried" button whenever something troubles you, about a mentee, another mentor or yourself.

What you judge

You decide, with a short written reason, when a mentee reaches the stabilization milestone, when Tier III opens, when they are ready to mentor, and when to return to heavier contact. Your mentee can read those reasons.