Health Mentor for Diverse Teens: MIKE Program

Opportunity for Field placement or Internship 

About:  www.mikeprogram.org

Contact:  [email protected]/ 503-296-7705

Next Training:  January 16 AND January 17, 2010 from 9:00 AM-2:30 PM. Please RSVP to the above telephone number or skip directly to www.mikeprogram.org/volunteer_app  and we will contact you.

When: Next placement opportunity begins February 2010.

Where: All current upcoming placements are in North Portland and close to public transportation.

Environment: This is suitable for more than one mentor serving together. You will serve small group of teens in school settings under the facilitative guidance of a health instructor or youth worker.  Teens may be ninth grader health students or mixed grades. 

Many of the young people you will serve are facing socio-economic challenges and developmental interruptions. It is imperative that once placed in a MIKE Program youth group mentors honor the youths’ need for caring, responsible, and consistent adult role models. There are no medical procedural activities required. In the words of Albert Schweitzer:  “Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing.

Develop cultural engagement skills and enhance behavioral and social science service skills serving as a health mentor in a group of diverse teenage children engaged in MIKE Program in the Portland Metro area. MIKE Program embodies at least three-quarters of the building blocks of youth success published in the 2003 Search Institute research outlining the 40 Developmental Assets. We use the power of group mentoring, service learning, social emotional learning, placed-based learning, contextual learning, youth adult partnership, and some of collective youth action that defines best practices of youth development.

MIKE Program--Multicultural Integrated Kidney Education Program-- is a community non-profit organization serving in the Portland Metro area.  Our mission is to empower youth to be ambassadors of health in service to their diverse communities through mentorship, partnership, and the promotion of healthy kidneys. We act as guides to promote healthy behaviors and decrease risky behavior in order to decrease the incidence of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and risky behaviors, all precursors to kidney failure.

Our Goals:

*Empower youth to participate in health promotion

*Promote excellence and equity in health and health care (including social and emotional health)

*Raise awareness about the link between healthy kidneys and overall health and productivity.

*Target programs to the medically disadvantaged communities at high risk of kidney failure

Training starts this service learning opportunity and will include aspects of the MIKE Program curriculum, which meets national and state standards for comprehensive adolescent health education, Career Related Learning Skills, and best practices of youth development and adolescent health education. 

You will learn and experience group theory as you serve throughout the entirety of one youth group project.  Projects may start either in October or late January/early February, extending through the end of the following semester or the entire high school year. Projects typically are geared toward the academic schedule and thus do not meet during typical holiday breaks, except that youth groups typically participate in Martin Luther King Jr. Day, usually in the morning. Typical time with youth is 1.5-2 hours, meeting one (or if a tailored experience, more) days a week, either in-school time or after school.  Add travel time and preparation time, occasional field trips with youth on weekends or extended class time, and bi-monthly booster training sessions.

Cheryl Neal, M.D., President_MIKE Program*

[email protected]

9155 SW Barnes Road, Suite 221

Portland, Oregon 97225

Mailing_PO Box 91194_Portland,OR_97291

T_Office:(503) 296-7705_Fax:(503)216-2594

Direct:(503) 629-5848  Mobile: (503) 421-6574 

www.mikeprogram.org

Reach Up, Reach Out, Reach Back

* 2008 Multnomah County Public Health Hero