By Jean Rhodes Although COVID-19 appears to spare children from the most serious health problems, marginalized youth are likely to bear the heaviest burdens of trauma and economic fallout. This has serious implications for mentoring programs, which often serve particularly high risk youth. For example, an analysis of the two million young people aged six […]
By Jean Rhodes How should parents, mentors, and other caring adults talk to children and adolescents about the growing COVID-19 pandemic? As a mentor, it is certainly appropriate to acknowledge some level concern, and to provide age-appropriate, accurate information that encourages actions that reduce the risk of exposure. But, if children see adults as overly […]
by Jean Rhodes Mentoring programs have not always appreciated the vitally important, positive role of caregivers in the success of mentor-youth relationships. In a large, multisite study, researchers found that staff and mentors often viewed mentees’ parents and communities primarily as “negative influences” (Lakind & Eddy, 2015). Such beliefs have a long legacy in youth […]
by Jean Rhodes, Matt Hagler, and Sam McQuillin We are living through one of the most bitterly partisan periods in history. In the latest New Republic, policy analyst Rachel Bitecofer drew dispiriting parallels between today’s climate and the period leading up to the Civil War, “Then, as now, the nation and its elected leaders were divided […]
by Jean Rhodes Originally posted in 2017 I once took a year’s leave from academia to serve as a match coordinator in a Boston-based mentoring program. One evening I found myself sitting on the edge of a couch in a subsidized apartment conducting an intake with nine year old Kayla and her mom. Kayla’s toddler brother played […]
by Jean Rhodes Care for some direct, research-based ideas for connecting with others? I’d recommend a book that distills the essential findings of many studies. Friend and Foe, by Business Professors Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer or Columbia and University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Compiled by Eric Barker, the authors provide evidence-based strategies for handling the everyday relationship tensions and difficulties. Some […]
by Jean Rhodes One of the benefits of remaining in the field of youth mentoring for so long is that I can look back over the past 30 years, and see both how much things have changed. Like many psychologists of my generation, I was not exposed to empirically based therapies during graduate school. By […]
by Jean Rhodes Thanks for helping to make 2019 another banner year for Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring! In case you missed them, here are five of the most frequently viewed posts of 2019. Many readers delved into the five key takeaways of a comprehensive new meta-analysis on youth mentoring. Readers also considered the two logical […]
by Jean Rhodes In a forthcoming book, “Older and wiser: Rethinking youth mentoring for the 21st Century,” (Harvard University Press), I explore why the field of mentoring has remained somewhat decoupled from the more rigorous guidelines of prevention science, and has been granted considerable immunity from the consequences of disappointing findings over the years. Although […]
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. John F. Kennedy by Jean Rhodes Although most youth interventions are developed in response to particular needs or goals, mentoring programs were conceived more broadly as an extension of informal helping relationships. For nearly a century, most volunteer mentors were tasked simply with building friendships […]
MENTOR: The National Mentoring PartnershipNovember 12, 2014 - MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is the unifying champion for expanding quality youth mentoring relationships in the United States. For nearly 25 years, MENTOR has served the mentoring field by providing a public voice, developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide and promoting quality for mentoring through standards, cutting-edge research and state of the art tools.
Academic Web PagesAugust 6, 2012 - Academic Web Pages is the leading provider of customized websites for researchers, centers, nonprofits, and universities. AWP designed and has contributed generously to the creation of the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring.