Youth Development Peer Network

On Thursday, October 30th AFA TAC ushered in the 2008-09 cohort of Mentors and Mentees at the annual Mentor/Mentee retreat. The retreat brought together 12 experienced site coordinator/director-level youth workers and paired them with 14 emerging leaders. The day was chalk full of activities, teambuilders, and business.

Ruth Barajas, CHALK's Project Director and an AFA TAC Mentor became involved with the project becasue "[she is] committed to the development of the 'youth workers' field, and by providing meaningful and effective support to a mentee, [she is] taking action toward development." Ruth's sentiments were echoed by AFA TAC Mentee Teresa Nauer (also a Youth Worker Brown Bag Affinity Group Facilitator) who stated "Well the reason I decided to become a mentee is because I know that I needed development in some areas that I personally couldn't give myself [or have any clue how to do so]. So I was reccommended this perfect opportunity to become a mentee and all fell in place from there."

This is the power of the AFA TAC Mentoring Initiative. It builds on the personal commitment youth workers give to their jobs and grows programs from there. Jason Wyman, AFA TAC Steering Committee member for the YDPN, stated "I am really proud to be a part of this Initiative. The YDPN is dedicated to supporting professional spaces of peer learning. The AFA TAC Mentoring Initiative helps build the capacity of peers to support each other. This is a very crucial step towards professionalizing youth work and youth development."

Joining Ruth Barajas as AFA TAC Mentors are Larry Klein, Vi Huynh, Ryan McCarthy, Heidi Erbe, Carlos Almendarez, Sean Joyce, Marisa Gittens, Leah Garza, Meaghann Hogan, Thu-Suong Vo, and Susana Rojas. The AFA TAC Mentees are Teresa Nauer, Ana Maria Sauthoff, Christopher Ramos, David Meletiche, David Alexander, Erica Hernandez, Erika Padilla-Morales, Ilia Correa, Lekesha Howard, Marjorie Boggs Vazquez, Marlina Contreras, Monica Sheftel, Shanell Williams, and Theresa Navarro.

To learn more about these amazing Mentors and Mentees, register with the YDPN by clicking here. Once you have registered, click "User Lists", and you can get to know more about these amazing individuals.

David Alexander said "[what] I am most inspired by the AFA TAC Mentoring Initiative [is] the ability for myself to meet and work with another youth worker of San Francisco. One hope I have for youth workers across the Bay Area is the workers, who do not work for OUSD or SFUSD, can create a union to protect our jobs and careers." The AFA TAC Mentoring Initiative, while not a union, is definitely a start to creating the structures needed to support the long-term development of youth workers in San Francisco. And it is starting one youth worker at a time.