Mentoring can take on a new significance when the mentee is spending time behind prison walls. 

Steph Reed, a small-business owner whom I met during a recent employer roundtable event held at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women at Mitchellville, is in discussions with officials there about possibly establishing a mentoring program to pair inmates with members of the business community. 

Reed, a homebuilder and owner of Partners By Design Homes Inc. in West Des Moines, had initially visited the prison with a group from the homebuilders association. Although her homebuilding business is too small to hire its own employees, she knows of at least one contractor she hires that does employ at least one ex-offender. 

For her, volunteering as a mentor would be a good way to get involved and do her part, Reed said. So during the recent visit she spoke to a small group of inmates to gauge their interest in being mentored. 

“I asked them: If you had a mentor, someone who knew your story and was here for you on the outside when you got out, would that help?’ The response was: absolutely.”