A professional family life or youth development educator can function as a mentor to natural community leaders. The most important task of the professional educator may be to make the volunteers aware of how much they know and to encourage them to follow through on their own beliefs. Because of the limited emotional and spiritual energy available to volunteers living in disadvantaged situations, educators could use strategies that focus on mutual respect and encouragement. Specific strategies that focus on encouragement are as follows: (1) respect the individual with whom one works; (2) recognize efforts; (3) display effective communication skills; (4) maintain confidentiality; (5) keep expectations realistic and break tasks down so they are achievable; (6) project faith in one's volunteers; (7) respect the strengths in each volunteer with whom one works; (8) find as many positives in a negative situation as possible; (9) be prepared with programming, resources, and answers to questions; and (10) get to know the neighborhood in which you are working. (YLB)