Positivity Outward is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that created the first free and publicly available mentoring app for students.

Your role is to respond consistently to mentee messages to support their goals. As a mentor, you share your personal experience and journey to guide your mentees. 

Our program is based on the latest research and evidence for youth mentoring. Your guidance empowers students to develop self-awareness, self-management skills, responsible decision-making skills, and resilience. Students are confident and connected.

Mentees are high schoolers or first-year college students with limited access to in-person mentors.

The majority of our mentees are low-income, Latino, first-generation high school students in Los Angeles.

You will likely be the only mentor in these students’ lives!

Positivity Outward does not pair you with mentees. Instead, mentees choose their mentors using the information in your app profile. Each relationship is different, one mentee might have a quick question and another may want to talk every day. 

In your profile, you share if you are accepting mentees, what your communication preferences are, and what you provide mentoring for.

There are also community features in the app, so if you do not have a 1:1 relationship with a mentee you can still respond to group discussions. 

Before you can connect with mentees, you must complete an application, interview, background check, and training course. 

Each training step is completed through the app and training costs are covered by Positivity Outward. 

The average time commitment is 1 hour per mentee per week during the academic year. 

The requirements to mentor are: 

• actively mentor during the academic year
• mentor for at least 1 semester
• consistently respond to mentees, typically within 1-3 days
• check-in with Positivity Outward every two weeks during the academic year

Since our mentors are volunteers, Positivity Outward will support your professional goals in whatever ways you need. 

You must mentor for at least one semester before receiving a letter of recommendation or verification of volunteer hours. 

You will submit your request for a letter or verification through the app. 

No, mentors for Positivity Outward are not paid at this time.