(Madison County, NY – Oct. 2015) Dennis Hoover has been with CAP since May of 2007, starting out as a Mentoring Caseworker. He advanced to Program Match Coordinator and is now a Program Supervisor for the Mentoring program. What does he do as Program Supervisor?
He meets with the mentors and the families of the mentees, charts progress, does intakes for new members of the program, helps to solve problems that might occur, and works on possible ideas for activities to offer to the mentoring groups.
Mentoring appealed to Hoover before he became involved with the CAP program. He was previously working with adults and youth with disabilities in a structured environment and felt he was able to make a real difference in their lives. He was also a youth pastor at Church on the Rock in Oneida.
One of Hoover’s favorite things about mentoring is seeing how a mentor can really impact the outlook of a child – what they see, what they can accomplish and what their vision becomes. He enjoys working with the mentors to help them develop their skillsets, communications, learn about themselves. He likes to be there for mentors when they are facing some difficult challenges with their mentees.
Hoover said,“One mentor wanted to give up – they were just so discouraged by their lack of relationship with their mentee. I was able to counsel and listen, and highlight just how their influence was affecting the child…I like to focus on what they have to offer to their mentee.”
While he is not doing any formal hands-on mentoring, Hoover continues to be involved with youth as much as possible. He keeps in touch with some of his former mentees.
“Social media allows for a real continued connection” Hoover said.
Hoover is a resident of Chittenango, married with two children, aged 10 and 6. He continues to spend some of his time working with youth and creative ministries at the Church on the Rock.
Hoover is a CAP Champion. He has enhanced the mentoring program by helping to organize and formalize procedures and process, develop and find socialization activities for their groups and continues to open the door to the community. He also offers a great deal of “comic” relief to the office with his humorous demonstrations of some activities and costumes from some of the mentoring events – especially his sumo wrestling outfit.
CAP is always looking for mentors in our volunteer program. Call 697-3588 Ext. 24 to talk with Hoover.