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Mentoring, Youth

Youth mentoring is practiced in a wide range of social institutions, such as schools, churches, local businesses, and community organizations. It is commonly described as a relationship where a nurturing, nonparent adult (mentor) provides social and/or academic assistance to a youngster (mentee) who may be at risk. Programs are both community-and school-based, using both professionals and volunteers. This entry describes various mentoring programs and summarizes assessments of their impact.

What is Mentoring?

Mentors can be aunts, uncles, clergy, coaches, teachers, and other adults. Mentors share one of two types of bonds with mentees. The first is described as emotionally open and committed. In this arrangement, the mentor is like a family member and is engaged in multiple aspects of the mentee's life. In the second bond, the mentor is more of a friend, with more limited openness and involvement. Regardless of the type of bond, youth mentoring is a form of social interaction that has a give-and-take quality, whereby both mentor and mentee learn from one another.

Traditionally, youth mentoring has focused on those children and adolescents who are considered to be at risk or “underserved.” Associated with these categories are academic failure, dropout, limited parental involvement, drug and alcohol abuse, and high exposure to violent surroundings. These deficits, combined with limited community resources (e.g., youth facilities, athletic clubs, and violence prevention programs), as well as the breakdown of the traditional family unit, have been thought to produce a feeling of social detachment among youth. Sociological research has noted that the absence of loving and supportive families negatively affects children's behavioral development, leading to antisocial, aggressive, and even violent outcomes. Mentoring seeks to address this by fostering meaningful relationships with youngsters that enable them to thrive despite the daily obstacles that they encounter.

Many mentoring programs are geared toward helping youth cope with difficult social and economic circumstances. Programs like Community for Youth (Washington), Mentor/Mentee (Arkansas), Project 2000 (Washington, D.C.), and Youth Outreach Services (Illinois) reach local populations, whereas larger organizations such as the National Mentoring Partnership, America's Promise, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America (BIGS) operate on a national scale. BIGS, established in 1904, is America's largest youth mentoring association, operating in forty-one states and matching 70,000 young people with adult mentors.

Content and Structure

Most programs, depending on the needs of their population, employ curricula and resources that emphasize academic achievement, social competency, rites of passage, child rearing, career training, health education, spiritual development, and arts education. Despite this mixture of programming, the main objectives of youth mentoring are to enhance academic performance, build parental and peer relationships, and promote self-esteem and self-worth.

Mentoring can be highly structured or loosely arranged depending on the format under which it occurs. There are generally two kinds of mentoring formats: the community-based model or the school-based approach. Organizations like BIGS typically use the classic community-based model, which brings mentors and mentees together one-on-one. Mentors and mentees will often engage in some form of recreational activity that also provides them a time to discuss pertinent life issues. These interactions may occur on the weekend when mentors have free time. Volunteer adults are usually matched with youngsters based on shared cultural background, gender, economic status, life experiences, and spoken language. Mentors undergo an intense screening process because much of their time with the child or adolescent goes unsupervised. One-on-one interactions can be long- or short-term, depending on the bond and chemistry between mentor and mentee.

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