7 Steps to Becoming a Prison Mentor in BC
By Dan Rempel
If you have ever felt a pull to help people impacted by incarceration, you may also have felt a few questions arise:
Where do I start?
Am I qualified?
What do I say?
What does prison mentorship actually involve?
It’s normal to have questions. Most people who become mentors don’t begin with complete confidence. It starts with a willingness to learn, a desire to serve, and a belief that people impacted by incarceration deserve support as they make better choices, heal broken trust, and rebuild their lives despite limited opportunities.
M2W2 helps volunteers step into this work with training, structure, and support. You don’t have to figure it out alone. We will guide you through a process that helps you understand the mission, learn healthy boundaries, prepare for the realities of mentorship, and walk alongside someone who needs steady encouragement.
This guide will outline the seven basic steps to becoming a prison mentor in BC, from your first orientation video to your first mentoring relationship.
Step 1: Watch the Online Orientation Videos
The first step is simple: begin with the online orientation videos.
These six videos, totaling 15 minutes, introduce you to who M2W2 serves and why this work matters. You will learn about prison mentorship, NOLA mentorship, and the broader purpose behind walking with people impacted by incarceration.
These videos are an important first step because they give you a clearer picture of the work before you commit. Prison mentorship is relational. It isn’t about arriving with all the answers. It’s about learning how to be present, consistent, respectful, and compassionate.
The orientation also helps you see where your gifts might fit. Some volunteers feel drawn to visiting people inside correctional institutions. Others feel called to support people as they re-enter the community. Either way, the first step is to learn the heart of the work.
Step 2: Learn the Role of a Mentor
After the orientation, take time to understand what mentorship actually looks like.
A prison mentor isn’t there to fix someone’s life, force a decision, or tell them what their goals should be. Mentors listen, ask thoughtful questions, offer encouragement, and help someone clarify the direction they want to move in.
That may sound simple, but it can be deeply meaningful. Many people impacted by incarceration have experienced judgment, abandonment, instability, or broken relationships. A consistent mentor can become a steady presence in a season when rebuilding trust is difficult.
This blog post by one of our volunteers goes into more detail about what this work actually looks like.
Step 3: Complete the Volunteer Application Process
Once you have watched the orientation videos and feel ready to explore further, the next step is to complete the volunteer application process.
This usually includes an application, an interview, reference checks, a statement of confidentiality, and the required screening process. Depending on the type of volunteer role, this may include a criminal record check, Correctional Service Canada forms, fingerprinting, or additional institutional training.
The process may feel like a few hoops to jump through, but these steps help ensure that you are not dropped into a complex environment without support. They create a pathway that protects everyone involved.
Step 4: Take Boundaries and TRIP Training
Healthy mentorship requires healthy boundaries, which is why M2W2 includes boundaries training as part of the volunteer pathway. This training helps mentors understand what they can offer, what they shouldn’t take on, and how to maintain a safe, respectful, and sustainable relationship, especially when walking alongside people who may have experienced trauma, institutionalisation, addiction, loss, or relational instability.
M2W2 also offers Trauma and Resiliency-Informed Practice (TRIP) training, which helps volunteers better understand trauma, recognise its effects, and respond in ways that reduce harm and build trust. You don’t need to be a counsellor to become a mentor. This training helps you enter the relationship with humility, patience, compassion, and wisdom.
Step 5: Attend In-Person Training
After the online training and application steps, in-person training helps bring the pieces together. In-person training is a chance to ask questions, meet others who care about the work, and gain a more practical understanding of mentorship. This moment also helps ease some of the nervousness that many new volunteers feel. Many new mentors begin by wondering whether they’re the right fit. Over time, they discover that God can use their life experiences, their willingness to show up, their faith, and their patience in unexpected ways.
Step 6: Get Matched Through M2W2
After completing the training, M2W2 will guide you through the matching process. Our team will connect you with someone who has applied for support through our programs.
This matching process helps create a thoughtful beginning for the mentoring relationship. It will look different depending on whether you’re helping people in correctional institutions or walking alongside someone transitioning back into the community. In either case, you won’t have to find your place alone.
Step 7: Start Walking Alongside Someone
Eventually, you’ll arrive at the moment all of this training has built up to. Your first meeting may feel a little awkward, but that’s normal. Meaningful relationships take time to build.
Start with presence. Listen. Ask good questions. Be patient. Keep showing up. Some conversations may feel ordinary; others, heavy. You’ll talk about goals, hopes, faith, frustration, and practical challenges as they try to reconnect with family, find work, manage health issues, and learn basic life skills after years in prison.
What may seem simple to you can be overwhelming for someone else. Sometimes the mentor’s role is simply to say, “You can do this,” and help someone believe it.
You Can Make Release from Prison Feel Like a Real Opportunity
Without steady support, people impacted by incarceration can miss opportunities for a real second chance. They want to change but lack a healthy community. They have goals, but no one to help them stay focused. They’re motivated to move forward but still feel alone, judged, or overwhelmed by the practical challenges of rebuilding life.
But when volunteers step forward, they help create space for better choices, stronger relationships, and renewed hope. They help someone who has felt forgotten to experience consistent care and encouragement as they try to rebuild.
Mentorship changes the mentor, too. Volunteers often discover that people impacted by incarceration are people with stories, wounds, hopes, regrets, and a desire to belong, just like anyone else. Mentorship opens the door to compassion, humility, and meaningful service.
Take the Next Step
You don’t need to answer every question before you begin, nor do you need to feel fully confident. You only need a willingness to explore this opportunity to serve. And if you’ve read this far, you already have it.
Now, we invite you to take the next step.
Take 15 minutes to watch the orientation videos.
Someone impacted by incarceration is waiting for a steady, caring person to show up. M2W2 will support you as you consider stepping into that role.
