There is a major new piece of mentoring research that was just released that I think YouthBuild programs will find some interest in. The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles explores the impact of mentoring on youth with various levels of risk. This research was conducted over several years on programs in the state of Washington and the project was led by the esteemed Carla Herrera and Jean Grossman (formerly of Public/Private Ventures) and David DuBois from the University of Illinois-Chicago. The full report and executive summary can be downloaded at: http://www.mdrc.org/role-risk.
Here is the full one-page press release:
More and more, mentoring programs are being asked to serve young people who are considered “higher risk.” While mentoring has a strong research base generally, relatively little is known about mentoring programs’ capacities to serve and produce benefits for higher-risk youth. This report presents results from the first large-scale evaluation to examine how the levels and types of risk youth face may influence their mentoring relationships and the benefits they derive from mentoring programs. The study looked closely at the backgrounds of participating youth and their mentors, the mentoring relationships that formed, the program supports that were offered, and the benefits youth received—and assessed how these varied for youth with differing “profiles” of risk.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study involved more than 1,300 youth, drawn from seven programs serving young people in Washington State. Oversight and support for the project were provided by Washington State Mentors.
Key findings include:
These findings have a number of important implications for practitioners and funders, which are discussed in both the full report and its executive summary. Overall, the study’s results suggest that mentoring programs can be beneficial for youth with a broad range of backgrounds and characteristics. Tailoring the training and support that is available to matches based on the specific risks youth face has the potential to produce even stronger benefits.