Posts

What is overlooked in volunteer work with young people?

Mölkänen, J., & Honkatukia, P. (2022). Ambiguous, affective, and arduous: Volunteers’ invisible work with young adults. Journal of Youth Development, 17(4). https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2022.1198 Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest:  Past research has either focused on a) the benefits of becoming a volunteer, b) volunteers’ motivations or c) how mentorships are a promising method for approaching at-risk […]

Are supportive relationships enough? The great debate continues

by Jean Rhodes In their provocative new paper, Back to the Future: Mentoring as Means and End in Promoting Child Mental Health, mentoring experts Tim Cavell, Renée Spencer & Sam D. McQuillin make the case for several approaches, including the “supportive mentoring” approach, wherein the “mentoring relationship is not intended as a targeted intervention designed to produce […]

Volunteering is linked to better mental and physical health in adults

Kim, E. S., Whillans, A. V., Lee, M. T., Chen, Y., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2020). Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Older Adults: An Outcome-Wide Longitudinal Approach. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.03.004 Summarized by Monica Arkin Notes of Interest: Researchers find physical and mental health benefits for adults ages 50+ who volunteer […]

Youth mentoring: the motivation of volunteering and the validity of the volunteer function inventory

  Teye, AC,  Peaslee, L. (2020). Why mentor? A validation study of the volunteer functions inventory for use in youth mentoring. Journal of Community Psychology, 1– 19. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22326 Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest:  Examines the validity of the Volunteer Functions Inventory, as well as the functional motivations of youth mentoring program volunteers  473 participants/mentors were […]

Senior volunteers ward off brain ‘shrinkage’

By Stephanie Desmon The memory center in the brains of seniors who volunteered in public schools for two years maintained their size, rather than shrinking as part of the normal aging process, report researchers. The findings suggest that retirees who take part in meaningful social activity can prevent shrinkage in their brains’ memory centers and avert age-related […]

Volunteering in public schools boosts seniors’ memories

The memory center in the brains of seniors who volunteered in public schools for two years maintained their size, rather than shrinking as part of the normal aging process, report researchers. The findings suggest that retirees who take part in meaningful social activity can prevent shrinkage in their brains’ memory centers and avert age-related cognitive problems. In […]

Mentoring outside city limits: New Rural Mentoring Toolkit produced by MANY

There is one universal truth for all youth, anywhere—and that is that any young person can benefit from a mentoring relationship. Whether your community is urban, ex-urban, suburban, or rural, the youth in your schools and neighborhoods could use a strong, positive role model. Likewise, each type of community comes with its own strengths and […]

Mentor Expert

UK’s Children’s Commission releases new report on youth mentoring

by Anne Longfield The recent tragic murders in London have again brought home how urgently we need to do more to stop young people joining gangs and becoming involved in violent crime. The drugs trade is absolutely ruthless. It grooms children, uses them and then discards them. The police have told me that the level […]

Can mentoring create better citizens: These findings suggest so!

Editor’s note: For years, scholars have argued that one of the benefits of serving as a mentor is that it awakens the adult to the problems facing today’s youth. Many of us have seen the potential benefits of connecting middle-class voters with at-risk youth. Mentoring provides a lens through which  middle-class adults can see the ravages […]

What we can learn from a “glittering ounce” of good news

“Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshiped and fondled like a priceless diamond.” -Hunter S. Thompson by Jean Rhodes Let us take a moment to recognize an extraordinary mentoring program that recently produced remarkably promising findings. The Arches Transformative Mentoring program has delivered […]