Mentoring expert, Renée Spencer, emphasizes the importance of developing a clearer understanding of positive youth relationships

Experts’ Corner: Mentoring in the era of COVID-19

From the ‘Mentoring in the era of COVID-19: Nine experts in the field weigh in’ article by Justin Preston and Monica Arkin

Dr. Renée Spencer, Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Boston University School of Social Work, notes, “We’ve tried to apply tools best suited to assessing much more focused or targeted interventions and have found mentoring to be lacking. But I think what we should be doing is much more intentionally developing a clear and coherent understanding of what it takes to build and sustain the kinds of relationships that we already know can be so promotive of youth development, or building a solid science of youth mentoring relationships.”