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National Mentoring Month. Amplify Mentoring | MENTOR

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Access the National Mentoring Month videos, and monthly calendar of events, and learn more about how this campaign promotes and recruits mentoring programs.

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Mentoring takes place between young persons (i.e., mentees) and older or more experienced persons (i.e., mentors) who are acting in a non-professional helping capacity to provide support that benefits one or more areas of the mentee's development ¹.

¹ Adapted from DuBois and Karcher, "Youth Mentoring in Contemporary Perspective," in the Handbook of Youth Mentoring, 2 nd edition (Sage Publications, 2014).

Mentoring of youth may be best understood using a multi-level framework². Successfully advancing the quality and availability of mentoring for young people is expected to involve coordinated efforts across all these levels:

Activities: What do mentors and mentees do and talk about together? What types of influential support do mentors provide?

Relationships: How and under what conditions do the interactions between mentors and mentees evolve into significant personal connections that are sustained over time? What are the most salient and important features of these ties?

Interventions: What types of practices are most conducive to effectiveness in programs that specialize in making formal mentoring available to youth? How can other types of youth-serving programs and organizations best support young persons' access to high-quality mentoring?

Policy: What initiatives can governmental and other institutions undertake to support mentoring? How can these efforts be coordinated for the greatest collective impact?

Societal: What is the nature and level of public support for youth mentoring? What factors influence the willingness and ability of community members to become involved themselves in mentoring young persons?

² This framework assumes that youth can have important mentoring experiences (i.e. mentoring activities) with a variety of persons, including those with whom they do not have a significant interpersonal tie (i.e. mentoring relationship).

Key Mentoring Research

Youth mentoring research aims to explore the full range of issues that are involved in making high-quality mentoring available to all young persons. These issues include, but are not limited to, the characteristics of mentoring relationships that are most important in promoting positive developmental outcomes for youth, the effectiveness of different mentoring programs, practices, and the ways in which the most beneficial forms of mentoring may differ as a function of youths' personal characteristics and life circumstances. The breadth of topics currently being actively researched in the field is evident in the content of the most recent edition of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring as well as The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring.

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Mentoring Definition & Key Research. What Is Mentoring? | NMRC

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What is mentoring? What are the benefits? Discover the mentoring definition and its multi-level framework, and the key research, with NMRC.

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In this four part series, listen to interviews of 4 very different types of mentors: a music teacher, a Marine Corp drill instructor, an acting coach, and a MLB pitching coach.

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Slate contributor Eric Liu traveled across the country for two-and-a-half years in search of life-changing teachers and mentors from all different walks. The book that emerged from those travels is called Guiding Lights : The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life.

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Research-based resources on fostering POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT in the Digital Age for parents, schools, and communities, founded by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD. Learn More "

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Charting a Child's Route to Success

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At Roots of Action, we recognize the story of childhood and adolescence as an interior journey of self-discovery and growth-the integration of mind, body, heart, and spirit. Our purpose is to engage parents, teachers, and youth mentors as advocates for positive youth development.

Introduced in her book, Tomorrow's Change Makers: Reclaiming the Power of Citizenship for a New Generation, Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell offers a research-based model of positive youth development called The Compass Advantage. Its eight interconnected competencies, easily understood by children, families, and educators, are proven drivers of personal, academic, career, and life success. When these abilities are nurtured in children, they grow to become caring family members, innovative workers, ethical leaders, and engaged citizens.

Through our free Compass Surveys, we offer youth, adults, parents, grandparents, and guardians the opportunity to identify, understand, and strengthen the core abilities that help humans thrive. The surveys contribute to research in youth and adult development. Take a survey with your child in mind...or become more aware of your own human attributes.

Families, schools, and communities have a responsibility to redefine success for a new generation-to engage young people in relationships and experiences that foster health, wholeness, and well-being. Our articles, focused on positive youth development and categorized by the eight compass abilities, are available to schools and nonprofits at no cost. See our reprint guidelines, then help share positive ways to impact youth! View our many free resources for parents and schools!

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Roots of Action | Positive Ways to Impact Youth

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Research-based resources on fostering POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT in the Digital Age for parents, schools, and communities, founded by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD. Learn More " SUBSCRIBE NOW Get News & Updates At Roots of Action, we recognize the story of childhood and adolescence as an interior journey of self-discovery and growth-the integration of mind, body, heart, and spirit.

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Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - Youth Mentoring

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Dale Hawkins Long is a survivor of the September 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, where four of his friends were tragically killed and twenty-seven people injured. He and his late brother, Kenneth escaped unscathed. In September 2023 Dale spent a week visiting in Birmingham where he participated in several events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

Dale's experience in Birmingham led him to dedicate his life to volunteering. The recipient of numerous awards for volunteer service, for five decades he has been a mentor with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Dale was honored to be named the 1989 National Big Brother of the Year. In 2007 he was the recipient of the Clifford B. Norman, National Local Board Member of the Year. Last summer he received the inaugural Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Big Brother of the Year at its 97th General Convention in Dallas.

Dale is a speaker on the national platform who has shared his role in American History as a primary source of Jim Crow, 60's era, Birmingham with organizations including the National Urban League, Congressional Black Caucus, the United Methodist Church's General Conference, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, Texas Wesleyan University, Dallas College, Collin County Community College, the University of Dallas, Texas Southern University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Wyoming, The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, The National MENTOR Summitt, ONCOR Electric Delivery, The American Heart Association, the Dallas Black Dance Theater and the Cities of Dallas, Ft. Worth and Plano. In 1990 he shared the podium at the White House with President George H. W. Bush as the President announced one of his Youth Engaged in Service initiatives. In 2004 during the 40th anniversary commemoration of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, President George W. Bush included in his White House addresses one of Dale's childhood memories of growing up in Birmingham. For volunteer work, Dale has garnered media attention from Forbes, Essence, Time and Ebony Magazines, the Dallas Morning News, PBS, CNN, C-Span, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Sphinx Magazine, the NBC Nightly News and is listed in the 2011 Grio 100.

Dale was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and reared in Birmingham where he graduated from high school in 1970. He accepted a music scholarship, becoming a member of the famous "Ocean of Soul" Marching Band of Texas Southern University, Houston, TX, where he earned the Bachelor of Science Degree in 1974.

He is a member of the Garland Branch NAACP, the Leadership Dallas Alumni Association, Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity, a Life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, a Life member of the Texas Southern University National Alumni Association - Dallas Chapter, Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Suvivors Speakers Bureau, a Research Advocate with UT Southwest Medical Center, Dallas and a member of Kidsinbirmingham1963.org.

A resident of Garland, Texas he is the former Community Outreach Coordinator/Public Information Officer for the City of Dallas Public Works Department where he retired in April 2018. Previously he worked for a contractor on the NASA Space Shuttle Program, Houston, Texas Instruments in Dallas, The City of Garland, Texas and a contractor with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Light Rail Design and Construction Project.

Dale and his wife Ellen Scott Long are proud parents of adult daughters Kendra Dale and Amber Nicole and are members of Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas. In his spare time Dale enjoys reading, music and photography. A retired marathoner, Dale now does "power walking" and practices yoga.

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Home - Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - Youth Mentoring

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Mentoring can change a child's life. Sign up with BBBS today to start making a difference. Help a child reach their full potential. Learn how mentoring programs make a difference.

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Home Solutions Overview Curriculum Resources Antiracism Resources COVID-19 Resources Achievement Mentoring Program Resources PGC-HS Curriculum PGC-MS Curriculum Teen PEP-HS Curriculum Teen PEP-Bridge Curriculum Achievement Mentoring Campaign Connect Community Schools Peer Group Connection Teen PEP Customized Solution Results Donate Careers

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Based on the literature, the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, a collaboration of 21 federal departments and agencies that support youth, has created the following definition of positive youth development (PYD):

PYD is an intentional, prosocial approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances young people's strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.

The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs developed a research agenda focused on positive youth development. Through a collaborative consensus-building process, representatives from federal agencies identified three research domains (conceptual issues, data sources and indicators, and program implementation and effectiveness) and key research questions that could benefit from future research.

PYD has its origins in the field of prevention. In the past, prevention efforts typically focused on single problems before they surfaced in youth, such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and juvenile delinquency.

Over time, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers determined that promoting positive asset building and considering young people as resources were critical strategies. As a result, the youth development field began examining the role of resiliency - the protective factors in a young person's environment - and how these factors could influence one's ability to overcome adversity. Those factors included, but were not limited to, family support and monitoring; caring adults; positive peer groups; strong sense of self, self-esteem, and future aspirations; and engagement in school and community activities.

Researchers and practitioners began to report that young people who possess a diverse set of protective factors can, in fact, experience more positive outcomes. These findings encouraged the development of interventions and programs that reduce risks and strengthen protective factors. The programs and interventions are strengthened when they involve and engage youth as equal partners, ultimately providing benefits for both for the program and the involved youth.

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Based on the literature, the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, a collaboration of 21 federal departments and agencies that support youth, has created the following definition of positive youth development (PYD): PYD is an intentional, prosocial approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances young people's strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.

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Britannica Database information on Mentoring

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Britannica Database information on Mentoring

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Enter the Access ID and Passcode provided by your school to access Britannica School.