Mission Statement
Mission The mission of the SecondAbility Mentors group (lovingly called SAM by the members) is to provide training for dedicated volunteers on how to appropriately assist real-life disabled individuals as they gain entrance into and explore Second Life.
In addition, trained SecondAbility Mentors provide encouragement and assistance with a wide variety of issues that disabled residents may encounter, including understanding in-world behaviors and overcoming technical issues to the degree possible. SecondAbility Mentors also provide referral services to residents in helping them find the most appropriate on-going groups and services that will, in turn, support them in overcoming or coping with their particular disabilities as they continue with their Second Life experiences.
Serving as a SecondAbility Mentor can require a fair degree of patience. Residents with disabilities will have a wide variety of assistive devices and applications to help them with the use of their computers. Often they will type much slower, so the orientation period, as well as most activities that require in-world response or interaction, can take much longer than for an unchallenged individual.
Why SAM is Special
Apart from its mission to serve the disabled, SAM is unique in Second Life because it has three strong capabilities serving it:
- An enforced policy concerning training. All SecondAbility Mentors must complete the course of training to be given the SAM HUD and title.
- An enforced policy concerning acceptance of a membership agreement, whereby SecondAbility Mentors affirm that they are not professionals and cannot offer professional or medical advice, thereby protecting SAM and other stakeholders from legal actions.
- An automated call system and HUD to assist both residents in need of help and the SecondAbility Mentor with on-demand alerting.
SecondAbility Mentors is honored to be a Resident Help Network (RHN) group. The RHN program is designed to promote "the best of the best" volunteer-run help groups inworld through a cohesive network. Linden Lab reviews each group through an application process, and each group that passes muster is added to the Linden Lab approved network. Look for us in the Destination Guide.