2-179 - Youth Initiated Mentoring: A new approach to fostering supportive youth-adult relationships

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The value of supportive nonparental adults in youths’ lives, particularly youth experiencing other risk factors, has been well-documented. Typically, mentoring programs have attempted to leverage the power of such relationships by matching youth with volunteer mentors. Unfortunately, such programs show limited benefits when compared with natural mentoring relationships in which connections develop organically between youth and adults in their communities. Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) is a new approach that shows tremendous promise to expand the reach of mentoring by supporting the development of natural mentoring relationships between youth and the adults within their existing social networks. This symposium describes investigations of three unique interventions, all of which employ a YIM approach, yet vary in the level of scaffolding they provide and the population they serve. Paper one describes findings from a feasibility study in which a traditional mentoring program implemented YIM for their most vulnerable adolescents, with youth nominating mentors and the program providing ongoing support for the relationships. Paper two describes findings from a preliminary qualitative evaluation of a program in which middle school students from disadvantaged backgrounds and nonparental adults nominated by the students jointly participated in workshops designed to strengthen their relationships. Paper three describes results of a quantitative evaluation of the impact of workshops teaching underrepresented incoming college students the skills to recruit mentors during the transition to college. Together, these studies highlight the potential of YIM to foster the development of supportive relationships between youth and adults and draw attention to challenges meriting further study.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Sarah Schwartz, Suffolk University

Discussant

• Jean Rhodes, University of Massachusetts Boston

Individual Presentations

• "Well, that's not how we do things": Staff perspectives on implementing Youth Initiated Mentoring - Presenting Author: Renée Spencer, Boston University School of Social Work; Alison Drew, Boston University School of Social Work; Grace Gowdy, Boston University School of Social Work; John Paul Horn, Boston University School of Social Work; Emily Abrams, Boston University School of Social Work; Jean Rhodes, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Development and preliminary evaluation of an after-school program to promote connectedness with adults - Presenting Author: Noelle Hurd, University of Virginia; Saida Hussain, University of Virginia; Joseph Tan, University of Virginia; Emily Loeb, University of Virginia; Nancy Deutsch, University of Virginia

• An evaluation of a brief Youth Initiated Mentoring intervention for underrepresented students transitioning to college - Presenting Author: Sarah Schwartz, Suffolk University; Stella Kanchewa, University of Massachusetts Boston; Abigail Stark, Suffolk University; Jessica Cunningham, University of Massachusetts Boston; Janis B. Kupersmidt, innovation Research & Training; Jean Rhodes, University of Massachusetts Boston