Mentoring Youth In Action

Today, changes are occurring at a rapid pace in our society, and some changes are staring at us in the face. Why are Christians depending on others to do God's work? There is a need out there, and it is with our youth. We are in a generation that has left our youth in a precarious position—broken homes from divorce, stepfathers and stepmothers raising children, single parents, grandparents raising their grandchildren, foster homes, children living out of suitcases, and children raising children. Where are the leaders, and where are the Christians? Mentoring Youth in Action is dedicated to filling the void that has been imposed upon our youth. Author Mark Stiles has developed a unique, easily taught curriculum for youth, with one-of-a-kind illustrations. This seven-session course is a balanced presentation of content and application designed to assist youth in understanding how God can help them to cope with the challenges facing each of them. It is important not to overload students with content, but instead show them the relevance of further study of God's work, as well as how to apply what they've learned to their own lives.

Youth mentoring programs must change in order to become truly effective. The world’s leading expert shows how. Youth mentoring is among the most popular forms of volunteering in the world. But does it work? Does mentoring actually help young people succeed? In Older and Wiser, mentoring expert Jean Rhodes draws on more than thirty years of empirical research to survey the state of the field. Her conclusion is sobering: there is little evidence that most programs—even renowned, trusted, and long-established ones—are effective. But there is also much reason for hope. Mentoring programs, Rhodes writes, do not focus on what young people need. Organizations typically prioritize building emotional bonds between mentors and mentees. But research makes clear that effective programs emphasize the development of specific social, emotional, and intellectual skills. Most mentoring programs are poorly suited to this effort because they rely overwhelmingly on volunteers, who rarely have the training necessary to teach these skills to young people. Moreover, the one-size-fits-all models of major mentoring organizations struggle to deal with the diverse backgrounds of mentees, the psychological effects of poverty on children, and increasingly hard limits to upward mobility in an unequal world. Rhodes doesn’t think we should give up on mentoring—far from it. She shows that evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people’s lives. She also recommends encouraging “organic” mentorship opportunities—in schools, youth sports leagues, and community organizations.

This thoroughly updated Second Edition of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring presents the only comprehensive synthesis of current theory, research, and practice in the field of youth mentoring. Editors David L. DuBois and Michael J. Karcher gather leading experts in the field to offer critical and informative analyses of the full spectrum of topics that are essential to advancing our understanding of the principles for effective mentoring of young people. This volume includes twenty new chapter topics and eighteen completely revised chapters based on the latest research on these topics. Each chapter has been reviewed by leading practitioners, making this handbook the strongest bridge between research and practice available in the field of youth mentoring.

This book introduces the concept of critical mentoring, presenting its theoretical and empirical foundations, and providing telling examples of what it looks like in practice, and what it can achieve. At this juncture when the demographics of our schools and colleges are rapidly changing, critical mentoring provides mentors with a new and essential transformational practice that challenges deficit-based notions of protégés, questions their forced adaptation to dominant ideology, counters the marginalization and minoritization of young people of color, and endows them with voice, power and choice to achieve in society while validating their culture and values.Critical mentoring places youth at the center of the process, challenging norms of adult and institutional authority and notions of saviorism to create collaborative partnerships with youth and communities that recognize there are multiple sources of expertise and knowledge. Torie Weiston-Serdan outlines the underlying foundations of critical race theory, cultural competence and intersectionality, describes how collaborative mentoring works in practice in terms of dispositions and structures, and addresses the implications of rethinking about the purposes and delivery of mentoring services, both for mentors themselves and the organizations for which they work. Each chapter ends with a set of salient questions to ask and key actions to take. These are meant to move the reader from thought to action and provide a basis for discussion.This book offers strategies that are immediately applicable and will create a process that is participatory, emancipatory and transformative.

The Handbook of Youth Mentoring provides the first scholarly and comprehensive synthesis of current theory, research, and practice in the field of youth mentoring. Editors David L. DuBois and Michael J. Karcher, along with leading experts in the field, offer critical and informative analyses of the full spectrum of topics that are essential to advancing our understanding of the principles for effective mentoring of young people. The Handbook explores not only mentoring that occurs within formal programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, but also examines natural mentoring relationships that youth establish with adults outside of such programs.

A child at loose ends needs help, and someone steps in--a Big Brother, a Big Sister, a mentor from the growing ranks of volunteers offering their time and guidance to more than two million American adolescents. Does it help? How effective are mentoring programs, and how do they work? Are there pitfalls, and if so, what are they? Such questions, ever more pressing as youth mentoring initiatives expand their reach at a breakneck pace, have occupied Jean Rhodes for more than a decade. In this provocative, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written book, Rhodes offers readers the benefit of the latest findings in this burgeoning field, including those from her own extensive, groundbreaking studies. Outlining a model of youth mentoring that will prove invaluable to the many administrators, caseworkers, volunteers, and researchers who seek reliable information and practical guidance, Stand by Me describes the extraordinary potential that exists in such relationships, and discloses the ways in which nonparent adults are uniquely positioned to encourage adolescent development. Yet the book also exposes a rarely acknowledged risk: unsuccessful mentoring relationships--always a danger when, in a rush to form matches, mentors are dispatched with more enthusiasm than understanding and preparation--can actually harm at-risk youth. Vulnerable children, Rhodes demonstrates, are better left alone than paired with mentors who cannot hold up their end of the relationships. Drawing on work in the fields of psychology and personal relations, Rhodes provides concrete suggestions for improving mentoring programs and creating effective, enduring mentoring relationships with youth.