Leadership Development

Our Process

YLN’s mentorship training is grounded in lived experience, trauma-informed practice, and youth co-design. All mentors complete a structured training process that prepares them to support system-involved and system-vulnerable youth with care, consistency, and accountability.

The process includes:

1. Foundation & Alignment
Mentors are oriented to YLN’s mission, values, and Mentorship Co-Design model. Training establishes shared language around healing-centered engagement, boundaries, youth safety, and ethical mentorship.

2. Lived Experience as Leadership
Mentors are trained to leverage their lived system experience responsibly—using it to build trust and relatability without centering themselves. Emphasis is placed on storytelling, credibility, and modeling healthy leadership.

3. Trauma-Informed & Healing-Centered Practice
Training equips mentors with tools to recognize trauma responses, de-escalate conflict, and create emotionally safe spaces. Mentors learn when to support, when to refer, and how to avoid re-traumatization.

4. Youth Engagement & Co-Design
Mentors are trained to facilitate youth voice through structured dialogue, feedback loops, and shared decision-making. Youth input is integrated into session flow, topic selection, and action planning.

5. Accountability & Reflection
Mentors participate in regular check-ins, debriefs, and reflective practice sessions. These ensure program fidelity, support mentor wellbeing, and inform continuous improvement.

This process ensures YLN mentors are not only relatable, but prepared—delivering mentorship that is consistent, culturally responsive, and aligned with both youth needs and partner expectations.