GCMLA – Charter

This page shares the Charter of the Greater Cincinnati Mentor Leadership Alliance.

This document serves to guide the work of the Core Team and the entire Alliance.

Alliance Vision:

• All mentoring organizations are thriving and at peak capacity.
• Our communities are stronger because our programs impact mentees deeply.

Alliance Mission:

• We elevate and expand capacity for social service focused mentoring in Greater Cincinnati.

Note:  Capacity includes elements of capability, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability.

• We support and encourage purposeful growth in all areas of life, ultimately focused toward “people in need”.
• We inspire sustainable, transformational growth in mentees, volunteer mentors, non-profit staff and all volunteers.
• We reapply and share to keep focus on our clients rather than content. Resources (tools, processes, people) are easily and freely available to enable continual improvement on-demand.
• We role model, benchmark and pilot tools and processes seeking best practices.

Scope of the Alliance:

• Social service-focused mentoring…serving people in need (not career mentoring for professionals).
• All ages…adult, teen, youth.
• Mentor Program Leaders (including Executive Directors, Volunteer Managers and “key” mentors).
• We equip and educate through self-service use of a shareable toolbox, workshops and 1:1 coaching.

We will measure our progress via the following:

• Strategic Plan progress (completion of key actions).
• Feedback via an annual Survey.

Key Documents:

• Strategic Plan.
• Masterplan (by quarter, program calendar).
• Member Engagement Plan.

 Core Team Principles:

• We seek consensus on key decisions.
• Core team members play an active role. We work in our passions and strengths.  We each lead in our own unique way:  content development, customer development, facilitators and coaches, ambassadors, etc.
• We respect and leverage our diversity…visible, mentor program focus, Cincinnati/NKY, customers and contributors, social service professionals and lead volunteers, neuro, experiential, faith and spirituality.
• We have one set of content. Continual improvement ideas are incorporated into documents.  We have a process to review and approve.  It is easy to access and use.  Everyone adds to and takes from the toolbox.
• Informal networking leads to sharing across organizations.

 The Core Team and Roles:

A core team of 8-10 people provide guidance, leadership and direction. We seek all types of diversity. Membership is comprised of mentor program leaders, volunteer leaders, executive directors and lead volunteers. We expect people to play an active role — 2-4 hours per month and hold the role 1-2 years.

Relationship with LSN:

• LSN is the sponsoring organization. It adds capacity (lead volunteers), infrastructure (e.g. web site, newsletter) and leadership (Tony and Lead Volunteers).
• LSN is a key content provider: life skills wiki, blog and tools.

Click here to see and download our 2023 Charter