About PRIME Mentors of Canada

PRIME Mentors of Canada is a charitable organization that delivers a special proactive program for at-risk creative children (ages 10-13 years) who tend to be underachievers by tapping into the wealth of experience, talents and skills of capable and caring adults, particularly retirees and university students. PMC was founded in 1987 and has been honoured, among others, by the Federal Department of Health and Welfare in 1993 as one of the most outstanding intergenerational programs in Canada, and by the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children in 1994 for its contribution to the development of human potential.

In a special one-on-one mentoring relationship, protégés and mentors are matched based on common interests and strengths. The pair designs and develops a self-chosen project, which after 12-15 weeks of meetings lasting usually one hour per week, is presented to the protégé's class to extend the benefits of the program to non-participating students. The process develops much-needed research, communication, creative problem-solving and leadership skills which, in turn, improve learning, school adjustment, capacity and willingness to work hard, self-concept, and school retention.

Unique Features of the Program

• Proactive:  Prevents rather than remedies costly problems.
  
  
• Strength/Interest-Focused:   Builds upon positive attributes and interests to heighten intrinsic motivation. Competency-based.
  
  
• Personalized:  Meets individual abilities and needs.
  
  
• Empowering:  Gives participants choice and control over their projects as they develop competence and confidence.
  
  
• Outcome-Based:  Provides active learning opportunities following the different phases of the PMC mentoring model to complete tangible projects that are shared with classmates, friends, parents and teachers.
  
  
• Holistic:  Integrates the different aspects of development to bolster self-esteem.
  
  
• Lifelong: Develops lasting skills and will to learn and achieve with excellence.
  
  

In 2000, PRIME Mentors of Canada initiated a first-of-a-kind scholarship for children. The $1000.00 award is put in a trust fund until the recipient graduates from high school to encourage advancement toward post-secondary education. Career mentoring is provided during high school years to enhance motivation to stay in school and plan for an informed career decision-making. Most importantly, scholars are also encouraged to be involved in community service.

By the year 2006, more than 1,600 children have been mentored one-on-one and approximately 46,000 classmates, parents and teachers have attended their class presentations.

 

Mentoring Model (Project-Oriented)

Phase (1) Exploration with the protégé (student) of activities/projects in an area of personal expertise or interest.

Phase (2) Agreement on a project/activity plan that is possible to complete within the available time; scheduling of carefully-sequenced activities; planning of time schedule; signing of a learning contract.

Phase (3) Carrying out of the plan in accordance with the written schedule.

Phase (4) Completion of a tangible end-product that illustrates what was done and learned.

Phase (5) Presentation of the completed project to the protégé's class and other interested groups or individuals.

Phase (6) Evaluation of the program and mentoring experience; identification of benefits gained by protégé and mentor; and suggestions for improvement of program and its delivery.

 

Keys to Success

• Affirmation of protégé's ability and potential to achieve
• Caring and supportive mentor
• Challenging expectations
• Building on one's strengths and interests
• Active participation in meaningful, purposeful self-chosen activities
• Personal satisfaction and pride in one's achievement (feeling of self-efficacy)
• Recognition from one's mentor, peers, teachers and parents.

Ongoing Projects

One-on-One Mentoring

PMC's twenty-year old mentoring program for creative children continues to operate in GTA this 2007-2008 school year. Thorncliffe Park Public School, the largest elementary school (K-5) in Canada has been included in the list of participating schools. Three or four more schools might be added to the 25 schools currently participating.

The program has been delivered to some 60 GTA schools since its inception but due to capacity limitations, has never been delivered to more than 28 schools in any given year.

E-Mentoring of PMC Scholars

With the view of promoting the advancement of the PRIME Mentors of Canada Scholars toward post-secondary education, informed career decision-making and quite importantly, the development of the spirit of volunteerism, mentors follow up the scholars when they reach high school. This is a joint project with the members of the Delta Kappa Gamma (Upsilon Chapter), an international society of key women educators.

Continuing Partnerships

The U of T Center for Community Partnerships, the Golden Key Honour International Society (U of T), the Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO), the Children's Peace Initiative, the Toronto Diustrict School Board and the Toronto District Catholic District School Board continue their participation in the ongoing mentoring program.

 

 

Recently Piloted Project

 

Community Builders in Action

Funded solely by the Maurice Price Foundation, PMC piloted in 2004-2005 school year a new project jointly with the Children's Peace Initiatives to develop caring leadership in the school and in the community.

The first group of PMC scholars who are now attending high school participated in a "World Council Meeting" on April 23, 2005 at the Ontario Institute For Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, which was facilitated by Linda Rosier and Marcia Stanley.

The World Council is a round table for higher perspective dialogue of any matter affecting the well-being of our humanity or our natural world. Its purpose is to resolve each matter in discussion, analyzing its present state, and envisaging a desired state and then agreeing to a course of action that will help to attain this desired state for the greater good of all.

Each participant was assigned a world leader (e.g. Mahatma Gandhi, Margaret Mead, Rachel Carson, Albert Einstein, and Alexander Graham Bell) to identify with, and from that leader's vision perspective were asked such questions as: what are your dreams for the world? What are the most critical problems that we face today globally? What statement of universal values would contribute the greatest to humanity in its efforts to address and begin to resolve global issues? how do you see the world in 2025-2030.

To familiarize the participants with their identified personas (their lives, influences and vision-perspectives), some biographical notes were provided.

With three meetings behind them, the participants are ready to put into action their local project proposals to make a difference in their schools and communities. The details of the project proposals can be found here.

Some projects have already been initiated and being followed up. Participating students received a special PMC patch of recognition that symbolizes the education and, synergy of the head (intellect), the heart (emotions), and the hand (actions).

The students will be supported and guided by the Prime Mentors of Canada, the Childrens Peace Initiatives, and by the community and the school mentor-advisors in carrying out their projects successfully. There will be formative and summative evaluations of each project.

Participants will attend a weekend "boot camp" to hone their skills as facilitators of the World Council in order that they may be able to organize with PMC World Council Meetings in the respective schools.

 

To Be Launched Projects

Youth MentorAction: Co-Piloting with Children (In Search of Funders)

Youth MentorAction is the (proposed) pioneering and innovative Cross-Age mentoring extension of PRIME Mentors of Canada's acclaimed Cross-Generational mentoring program which has been in operation in the public and Catholic schools for the last nineteen years. Its objective is to mobilize and train secondary school youth to mentor high-risk elementary school grade children and middle school graders who are much challenged in developing literacy skills. For this purpose, some secondary schools and elementary/middle schools will be twinned by proximity in certain areas of Toronto.

This initiative is unique in providing the necessary one-on-one attention that some children need to become literate (academically, socio-emotionally and morally) and in creating a great opportunity for youth to employ their knowledge, talents and energies while, at the same time, earning credits for the required forty-hour community service in order to obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

Quite importantly, such youth service could play a vital role in boosting the self-esteem and influencing the attitude and behavior of youth. The growing consciousness, competencies, confidence and social conscience being developed in the mentoring experience could become a character development catalyst in encouraging children and youth to initiate and lead projects and other social reforms as they become cognizant of the difference they make toward the betterment of their lives and that of others.

Youth MentorAction offers tremendous benefits not only to children but also to teachers, schools, parents and the community. Ultimately, PRIME Mentors of Canada aims to develop, through cross-age mentoring, family of schools and social agencies working together and supporting each other to address the challenges young people (including their families) face particularly within their specific communities in order to develop literacy skills, to stay in school, and to advance toward post-secondary education.

The working model that will be initiated and fine-tuned in this project is meant to be portable, viable and sustainable, provincewide, nationwide and worldwide, particularly in poor communities that are cash-strapped to provide costly new technology in education but are naturally endowed with rich human resources which could be developed in the most cost-effective way to be instrumental in achieving high literacy level and motivation for lifelong learning.

Mentoring Native Canadians (In Search of Funders)

An initial exploration is being carried out to expand the original one-on-one mentoring program to meet the special needs of native Canadians. A special program in Toronto's aboriginal school was launched in Spring 2007.

The native schools initiative involves all of the rigour of a standard application of the PMC model, but emphasizes the oral tradition that constitutes the teaching model that has been applied to native schools, in its implementation. PMC has adapted its own framework, placing less emphasis on such aims as academic excellence, in exchange for the equally important development of research, communication, and leadership skills. A longer term objective of the native schools program will be to follow protégés beyond the primary and middle school level (which is the present level of service to native students in Ontario), to provide a more general, long-term assistance to students once they leave the early milieu, and enter mainstream school. The ultimate objective is to ensure that a majority of protégés pursue a university/college education, to prepare them to assume leadership positions in their own communities, and particularly, to prepare them for employment opportunities in the public service. This is an important objective, since native self-government will only function in a real way when there are individuals from a native background that have received the credentials to assume positions of responsibility in government. Without proper education, these opportunities will be denied to aboriginals. With assertive mentoring that follows protégés through their life beyond the milieu of the primary school system, much of the effort extended to provide a boost to these children can contribute to positive adjustment and achievement once they reach the normative school environment.

 

 

Education is the key to personal growth
and economic prosperity of any country
(OECD; UNESCO, 2003)

A Transformational "Kick-Start" With Mentors