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America's Promise Alliance logo

Mentoring

Mentoring is a youth development strategy to carve a path of success for a young person on their journey to adulthood. Mentoring programs are designed to pair a supportive adult with a young person to foster positive, healthy development. The individual cultivates a positive relationship with the young person to guide and support them in their lives, often times focusing on the areas of academics, career preparation and behavior modification.

Mentoring programs also tend to be designed to benefit youth perceived to be at risk in areas of their life such as school, jobs and juvenile justice. The risk factors include, but are not limited to, being disconnected from school and/or work; lagging in academic achievement; lacking positive role models; being involved in the justice system; and transitioning out of foster care.

Resources

Center for Promise Squared
Defining Webs of Support: A New Framework to Advance Understanding of Relationships and Youth Development
March 01, 2017
In this brief, the authors present a web of support framework to describe how youth relate to adults and peers in their lives, and how these relationships provide the supports necessary for young people to thrive. This framework is composed of three key layers, each of which contributes to a young person’s development: relationships, resources, and networks/social capital.
Source: Center for Promise
Focus Areas: ThrivingFamily EngagementYouth InvolvementMentoring
How do out-of-school programs affect thriving?
November 25, 2015

Those who study youth development look to both external factors that affect youth (environment) and internal factors within the youth (personal attributes) that contribute to their positive growth.  Richard Lerner and his colleagues have also emphasized the importance of examining the interaction of person and environment to understand more completely how youth develop. 

Source: Thrive Foundation for Youth
Focus Areas: Expanded Learning TimeMentoringThrivingYouth Involvement
The Role of National Service in Closing the Graduation Gap
September 04, 2014

Great progress has been made over the last decade to reach an 80 percent graduation rate, but for the one in five students still not graduating on time, more hard work is required to achieve the GradNation goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by 2020.  For that reason, America’s Promise Alliance presents this paper that illustrates how national service is making a positive impact on young people and closing the graduation gap – from early literacy through high school graduation and beyond. Emerging evidence, described in this white paper, tells us that national service works.

Source: America's Promise Alliance
Focus Areas: Mentoring
Parramore, Orlando: Leveraging Local Strengths
May 29, 2014

The aptly named Division Avenue remains a demarcation line between predominantly white and predominantly black neighborhoods—and a stark reminder of the city’s segregated past.

In the beginning of the 21st century, approximately 73 percent of children and youth in Parramore, Orlando’s historically African American neighborhood, lived below the poverty line, with alarmingly high rates for child abuse and neglect. The neighborhood’s high school had received five consecutive Fs on its performance, and only 66 percent of youth graduated from it during the 2007-08 academic year. Teen girls were more likely than girls in the rest of the city to become mothers, and the juvenile arrest rate in Parramore was 250 percent higher than the rate for Orlando overall.

Source: America's Promise Alliance
Focus Areas: College & CareerExpanded Learning TimeMentoring
Don't Call Them Dropouts: Understanding the Experiences of Young People Who Leave High School Before Graduation
May 20, 2014

“Don’t Call Them Dropouts,” a report by America’s Promise Alliance based on research conducted by its Center for Promise at Tufts University, was funded by Target. In the largest nationwide study of its kind to date, young adults who left high school without graduating spoke at length about their experiences and the reasons they did not complete high school on time. As the nation reaches the all-time high of an 80 percent on-time high school graduation rate, this report listens deeply to what the remaining 20 percent say is happening in their lives, and what they need to stay in school.

Source: America's Promise Alliance
Focus Areas: MentoringRe-engaging YouthSocial and Emotional Learning
Caring Adults: Important for Positive Child Well-Being
April 15, 2014

Data was used from the 2011/12 National Survey of Children’s Health to examine the prevalence of caring adults' relationships among children in the U.S., ages 6-17, and among different subgroups of this population, and the association between having a caring adult and indicators of positive well-being.

 

Source: Child Trends
Focus Areas: Mentoring
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Related Reports

report cover
Youth, Relationships, and Career Readiness Cover
Hidden in Plain Sight

Related News

Woman and child sitting and talking

May 29, 2018

What’s Working: Unlocking the Untapped Potential of Relationships
Relationships matter. So what can national, state, and local organizations do to increase the number and quality of caring adults in the lives of students? And how can those relationships help support efforts to increase the graduation rate?
Family Engagement Mentoring
Malcolm Mitchell receiving award at 20th Anniversary Promise Night

February 08, 2018

Seven Young Leaders Making Black History Today
Young people across the country are improving media representation for people of color, promoting literacy education, speaking out against bullying, and much more. In honor of Black History Month, we compiled a list of seven African-American young leaders who are raising their voices, advocating for their causes, and fighting for a better future.
Mentoring
End violence against children

January 18, 2018

Community Leader Spotlight: Minnesota Alliance With Youth
“If the success of our efforts is tracked by numbers, we have lost the point completely and our children feel it. Before data, graphs, and systems there were relationships and community.” Alexis Goffe, GradMinnesota Director for Minnesota Alliance with Youth, learned this lesson when a student confided that some teachers seemed to care more about tracking attendance than the actual student. America’s Promise asked Goffe about his state’s effort to create a GradNation for all young people and the important role of caring adult relationships in this work. Here are his answers.
Mentoring
Mentor and childern

January 10, 2018

Think You Can’t Be a Mentor? These Four Stories May Change Your Mind.
This January, as MENTOR spotlights what it means to be a mentor In Real Life for the third year in a row, we wanted to bring you stories that challenge some of the myths of mentoring (that you have to bear the official title of “mentor” to make a difference), demonstrate the impact of being a caring adult, and help dispel some of your confusions or concerns.
Mentoring
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