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Mentoring Programs

Race and crime are two major factors associated with many of the mentoring programs that have been established to date. Programs are not typically designed to target specific races or criminogenic behaviors; rather they focus on youth who are seen to be “at risk” for individual and/or environmental reasons. Such youth are empirically and theoretically identified as being members of minority, low-income or poor single-parent families, who reside in socially disorganized urban, rural, and suburban areas more prone to criminal activity. In the past decade there has been an influx of mentoring programs initiated to address the needs and problems of these young people. This entry examines mentoring programs, why they exist, and their benefits to at-risk youth and identifies targeted populations.

Mentoring

Mentoring has traditionally been used to make differences in the lives of young individuals through support, guidance, and assistance as a means to promote and guide positive youth development. Mentoring is not used to change behaviors, but rather to provide long-lasting friendships. This is accomplished through personal activities between mentor (i.e., adult or student) and mentee (i.e., younger person). For example, visiting museums or libraries, attending sports games and theatrical plays, going to the park or shopping, spending time talking about life and everyday experiences, or going over a homework assignment.

Mentoring programs have been established to provide children with the opportunity to have influential one-to-one relationships with caring adults or high school students built on trust and dedication. These relationships are typically structured around initiatives designed and funded to focus solely on providing mentoring relationships for youth. Therefore this entry focuses only on those programs geared mainly toward mentoring. Throughout the United States there have been many initiatives that have established far-reaching youth mentoring programs, many of which are federally supported and targeted specifically for at-risk youth.

Federally Funded Mentoring Programs for Targeted Populations

Federal funding is the current financial support for mentoring programs throughout the United States, all of which have been allocated funds to provide mentoring services to specific populations of at-risk youth. The federal government provides funding for mentoring programs to specific populations through the several agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; U.S. Department of Defense/National Bureau; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families; U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education/Safe and Drug Free Schools; and the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Juvenile Mentoring Program

The Juvenile Mentoring Program is targeted toward those youth who are at risk of delinquency, gang involvement, educational failure, or dropping out of school. Agencies with juvenile mentoring programs include private, nonprofit, faith-based, and national youth service groups, for example Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) and Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the United States. Interested adults and high school students, who are at least 18 years old, offer their services through the Juvenile Mentoring Program. BBBSA provides school-based mentoring services that also allow for mentoring services to be provided to a youth mentee from a youth mentor. This program is school based and specifically targets schools in low-income areas.

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