Entries by Bernadette Sanchez

How mentors and mentoring programs can support mentees’ ethnic/racial identity

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By Bernadette Sánchez & Aerika Brittian Loyd  In light of recent media coverage on murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd (and many others) and the resulting protests across the nation, supporting the positive ethnic/racial identity of youth of color, especially Black youth, is more urgent than ever. The senseless killing of Black […]

4 strategies (and 2 tools) to improve cultural competency in youth mentoring

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by Bernadette Sánchez, PhD. How can we overcome cultural mistrust in mentoring relationships? (see related post) First, as staff get to know youth when they enter a mentoring program, it will be helpful to screen whether youth have cultural mistrust.  Practitioners can use this Cultural Mistrust Measure-Interpersonal Scale that we adapted to use with adolescents. This may […]

Are current mentoring models bad for kids’ health?

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BERNADETTE SÁNCHEZ, PHD, NMRC RESEARCH BOARD MEMBER & PROFESSOR AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY Editor’s Note: This blog article was originally posted on the National Mentoring Resource Center website. NMRC Research Board members were asked to share their key insights from last year’s National Mentoring Summit based on a workshop they lead, an innovation they learned about, […]

New research outlines 9 steps in using mentoring to boost physical activity in youth

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Smith, L. & Petosa, R. (2016). A structured peer-mentoring method for physical activity behavior change among adolescents. The Journal of the School of Nursing, 32(5), 315-323. Summarized by Justin Preston As the winter months roll in, a time typically reserved for hibernating and reduced physical activity more generally, new research has outlined an approach for […]

10 healthy strategies youth can use to cope with racial discrimination

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By Bernadette Sánchez, PhD. A number of years ago, my colleagues David L. DuBois, Naida Silverthorn, and Julia Pryce, and I developed an evidence-based intervention curriculum, GirlPOWER!, for adolescent, African American and Latina female mentees and their adult female mentors at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago. I contributed to parts of the intervention […]

How Adults Can Step Up in Youth Social Activism

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Bernadette Sanchez In a recent example of youth social activism, Meggie Noel and Kylie Webster-Cazeau started a campaign via YouTube videos and social media (#BlackAtBLS) to expose the racially hostile environment at their Boston elite public school. They gave examples of teachers who either engaged in racial microagressions and blatant racism and administrators who were […]

Nonprofit seeks to end violence by mentoring youth

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by Maria Sestito The (Jacksonville) Daily News Published: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 12:30 a.m. S.O.U.L. (Support, Opportunity, Unity, Leadership) Society kicked off its first few weeks as a nonprofit by holding a peace festival. The My Brother’s Keeper Peace Festival, held July 25, was an effort by organizers to begin a dialogue about violence, […]