The Peer Empowerment Program (PEP): A Complete Toolkit for Planning and Implementing Mentoring Programs within Community-Based Human Service Organizations.

This toolkit contains a program coordinator guide, facilitator guide, and learner guide for launching the Peer Empowerment Program (PEP), a mentoring program for direct support personnel in community-based human service organizations. The toolkit provides advice on how to select, train, and sustain mentors, as well as instructions for preparing and supporting mentees. The focus of PEP is to build the confidence and competence of newer direct support staff and help them get off to a good start. The program matches and supports volunteers from a pool of experienced direct support staff with less experienced staff. The program coordinator guide, "Understanding, Planning and Launching the Peer Empowerment Program," provides program planners and coordinators with all the information and tools they need to plan and develop the components of the PEP before initiating the program with their organization. The facilitator guide and the parallel learner guide contain two modules. Module A is a one-hour training module used to orient both prospective mentors and mentees to the power and magic of mentoring. Module B is a step-by-step mentor development curriculum designed to be completed in a four-hour workshop with the objective of preparing volunteer direct support staff for their roles as mentors. (CR)