Help teens learn and advocate for health

MIKE Program is recruiting Volunteer Health Mentors *now, July 15, 2010 to process applications for the earliest start date of **September 2010* or at other times throughout academic year 2010-2011*.*

Enhance your cultural engagement , behavioral and social science service, community service and training/educational skills.

Diverse Teenage Children need volunteer Health Mentors with MIKE Program.

Fill out an interest form at www.mikeprogram.org/volunteer_app. For more information, please contact Cheryl ([email protected]) or Megan ( [email protected], 503 296-7705).

We need many more mentors than last year so your application is welcome. There is some flexibility as to when our programs will be offered, so apply now and let your schedule influence when we enroll students.

No medical background required. However, in the words of Albert Schweitzer: “Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing.” 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 for the duration of the match which may be as few as 9-10 weeks (a term) or more typically for a semester or the whole school year depending on the setting. Must be able to pass a criminal background check.

We anticipate youth groups in north/northeast Portland and Hillsboro.

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*Description: *

MIKE Program--Multicultural Integrated Kidney Education Program-- is a community non-profit organization serving 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, with a strong emphasis on promoting social and emotional health, since all factor into kidney failure.

MIKE Program is a youth empowerment program that places health mentors with teen groups in classrooms or youth agencies. A teacher or case manager facilitates group process and navigates site requirements while employing the MIKE Program curriculum to bring teens and mentors together in a partnership of inquiry and action. We guide groups of young people to build friendship, team and work development skills for academic and career success while instilling an appreciation of healthy lifestyles so that the teens apply, adopt, and advocate for health in their diverse communities.

Mentors enrich the social and health environments of youth while encouraging the development of healthy relationships and behaviors. Activities include healthy snacks and exercise, art projects, field trips to grocery stores, tours of dialysis centers and other health facilities, interacting with health care providers, and the completion of a community outreach project in which the youth create and deliver a unique health message/project to others in their community .

Mentors undergo training in 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 apply group theory as you serve throughout the entirety of one youth group project. Programs have expanded and we need mentors now through June 2011. Mentors typically meet with youth for 1-2 hours per week, as well as embarking on occasional field trips with youth on weekends and attending booster training/networking sessions every other month.

-- Cheryl Neal, MD, President MIKE Program* 9155 SW Barnes Rd. Ste. 221 Portland, Oregon 97225 T: 503-296-7705 www.mikeprogram.org *2008 Multnomah County Public Health Hero~