Posts

The Importance of High-School Mentors

by Alyza Sebenius (the Atlantic) In her job as a “dream director,” Jessica Valoris is tasked with unleashing the potential of disadvantaged students at an inner-city high school in Washington, D.C. Her employer, a New York-based nonprofit called The Future Project, embeds mentors like Valoris in public schools, characterizing her role as a “midwife of […]

Youth-Initiated Mentoring is a game changer for disconnected youth

DECEMBER 10, 2015 BY: DEBORAH NEARY & WHITNEY MASTIN, MIDLANDS MENTORING PARTNERSHIP, Originally published in NMRC Blog At Midlands Mentoring Partnership (MMP), our community-wide data indicates that a priority must be made to reach the most vulnerable youth with quality formal mentoring services. A prospective solution came in 2013 when promising research was released that showed […]

Robert Putnum on why mentors matter

Illustration by Greg Clarke Editor’s Note: This article, which appeared in the October 2015 issue of The Rotarian, provides a nice overview of the issues that Harvard Professor raised in his 2015 book, Our Kids. It describes social capital and how mentors can help redress the growing wealth gap in the U.S.  We Americans like to think of ourselves […]

Sherpas, Anchors, and VIPS: Do we need a new term for “natural mentors?”

by Jean Rhodes What do you call a caring adult who helps young people in their everyday lives? This isn’t a riddle, it’s a question that perplexed experts and led to a lot of debate at a recent mini-conference on “natural mentors.” The volunteers who are trained and supported through programs are formal mentors, but the term natural mentor can […]

What we can learn from community psychology and public health

 by Jean Rhodes As mentoring programs gear up for the fall, many face the problem of long waitlists, resulting from shortages of volunteers (especially men of color). Efforts to mobilize caring adults can increase capacity but volunteer pools often remain limited by the cost of outreach and the growing (and sizable) gap between the number […]

Five Soft Skills that help youth succeed at work

 From Child Trends Youth worldwide are finding it increasingly hard to enter and be successful in the workforce. Global youth unemployment stands at a staggering 75 million and the number is rising. Over the past 20 years, as the workforce has modernized around the world, soft skills-the skills, competencies, behaviors, attitudes, and personal qualities that […]

Let’s work together to truly bring mentoring relationships to scale

By Michael Garringer, MENTOR, Director of Knowledge Management The recent “Real Mentoring Gap” article summarized a lot of what MENTOR has been discussing, both internally and with key external partners, since The Mentoring Effect report was released. A few quick thoughts: – While the percentage of American youth who get their mentoring solely from a […]

Baltimore steps forward to mentor post Freddie Gray

By David Shapiro and Terry Hickey From the Baltimore Sun When Trayvon Martin’s life was taken our nation was forced into a long overdue conversation about the condition of the lives of African-American boys and young men. Young men like Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; John Crawford in Beavercreek, Ohio; and now Freddie Gray in […]

Programs that help teens and young adults succeed

Editor’s note: In recent days, YouthBuild has been getting some very nice press. The “second chance” program, which is based in Boston, has over 250 programs across nearly 46 states serving older adolescents and young adults across the country. In this piece, Professor David Kirp describes YouthBuild and other programs that are making a difference.  […]

Mentoring Inquiries Surge After Baltimore Riots

Julia Craven huffingtonpost.com Riot-torn Baltimore’s smoky skies have given way to a silver lining. More than 300 inquiries about mentoring young people have poured into Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Chesapeake, the branch of the nonprofit serving the city, from adults interested in working with one of the 600-plus kids on the local waiting […]