Mentoring Programs for Youth
MENTOR’s Becoming a Better Mentor: Strategies to Be There for Young People is a free resource written by experts in the field to benefit any adult looking to support young people. Full of real-world advice and evidence-based strategies, it provides mentors with tangible strategies to “be there” for young people in their various life journeys and teaches them about the core skills, key principles, and critical practices of mentoring, such as:
mindsets and attitudes that lay the foundation for a strong mentoring relationship;
basic information about youth development and typical mentoring relationship cycles; and
critical skills and competencies to grow and refine to meet the needs of youth.
Connecting children to mentors that help build their self-esteem, improve their schoolwork, and avoid risky behaviors
This blog, sponsored by Youth Mentoring Connection (YMC) out of Los Angeles, informs you on programs and activities the YMC have executed successfully. If you are stumped on new activities to positively impact your mentees, head over to this blog and start brainstorming.
Connecting to Success (CTS) is an innovative model for mentoring that connects young people with disabilities to caring adults in the community. In this model, the primary communication between mentor and mentee is through e-mail with occasional face-to-face meetings incorporated into the program. CTS was developed by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) at the University of Minnesota. The goal of CTS is to help youth develop social competence, academic motivation, career awareness, and improved reading and writing skills.
With hundreds of resources, you can search by a specific topic or focus area.
Find information on helping pick your perfect mentoring style and situation, mentoring functions, and a step-by-step walk through the different phases your mentor-mentee relationship will go through.
This fact sheet provides programs with a check list to ensure they are meeting the 8 principles for managing mentors.
This guide offers information for starting a mentorship program. Elements include mentor/mentee recruitment, mentor training, matching participants, and monitoring outcomes.
Friends of the Children is a nationwide organization that breaks the cycle of generational poverty. The National Network Office supports chapters and affiliates, and leads national efforts to scale the model so that more of our nation’s highest-risk children receive a Friend.
The mission of Girls Rising is to empower at-risk girls to recognize their value and pursue higher goals through a community of women mentors.
This report offers suggestions to improve and sustain relations between youth development organizations and schools. Additionally, it outlines aspects of positive youth development, such as physical development, intellectual development, psychological and emotional development, and social development.
This article, “Keys to Quality Youth Development”, outlines keys and the premise for relationship-building between youth and their mentors.