Jerry Sherk

California Mentoring Partnership - Mentoring Program Expert

Jerry Sherk has been providing services in the mentoring field for almost 30 years. His motivation for working in the mentoring field is based on an earlier life experience. After a 12-year NFL career, Jerry returned to school to study psychology so that he could help athletes make the difficult move from sports to private life; Jerry soon found that the support strategies he learned can be used with anyone who is in transition. Since 1994, Jerry has been working with people undergoing life transitions (e.g., jobs/careers, disabilities, socio-economic adjustments) via mentoring programs. He also has been involved in assisting numerous youth mentoring initiatives.

Jerry founded the consulting firm Mentor Management Systems in 2000, a company that provides support to organizations. Jerry and his associates have assisted scores of mentoring programs to develop their operational structures and training materials, and to train mentors and mentees.

Jerry has expertise in helping both one-to-one and group mentoring programs. His document Designing and Implementing Group Mentoring Programs has been used as a guidepost for new mentoring efforts for over 15 years. He also developed and ran several group mentoring in San Diego area schools, and the Barona Indian Reservation.

In 2000, Jerry co-founded the Mentoring Coalition of San Diego County, an organization that brings together youth-serving mentoring programs for networking, resource sharing, and training. Jerry was the first Chairman, and he went on to serve as Executive Director until 2004.

In 2007, Jerry was the Director of Mentoring Technical Assistance for the Prisoner Reentry Initiative, funded by the Department of Labor, and overseen by Public/Private Ventures of Philadelphia PA. For this initiative, Jerry visited 16 grantee sites around the US. He was also the lead author on Mentoring Former Prisoners: A Guide to Reentry Programs (2009, U.S. Department of Labor), a document that continues to guide staff on how to develop reentry mentoring programs.

Currently, Jerry is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance for the California Mentoring Partnership, a statewide youth advocacy group.

As a defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns, participated in four Pro Bowls. He was also named to the All Pro team and NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1976.