International
Research from USA:
Public/Private Ventures, July 2008
Draws on lessons learnt from 'The Youth Violence Reduction Partnership' which was launched in Philadelphia seven years ago, to steer young people away from violence. Each participant is provided with a range of support including a community "streetworker" who takes on a mentoring role.
Research In Action Series
Contains 10 issues on pressing topics facing the youth mentoring field, each summarising the latest research and offering insight into the implications of that research on mentoring practice. Includes tools, activities, resources or training exercises to provide practitioners with a concrete application of the research findings in their everyday operations.
Issue 1: Mentoring: A key resource for promoting positive youth development
Issue 2: Effectiveness of mentoring program practices
Issue 3: Program staff in youth mentoring programs: qualifications, training and retention
Issue 4: Fostering close and effective relationships in youth mentoring programs
Issue 5: Why youth mentoring relationships end
Issue 6: School-based mentoring
Issue 7: Cross-age peer mentoring
Issue 8: Mentoring across generations: engaging 50+ adults as mentors
Issue 9: Youth mentoring: do race and ethnicity really matter?
Issue 10: Mentoring: a promising intervention for children of prisoners
Making a Difference in Schools: the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study
Public/Private Ventures, June 2007
First large-scale, national, random assignment evaluation of school-based mentoring in the United States of America following more than 1,100 children over 15 months. The Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring program uses volunteer mentors in one-to-one mentoring with children in more than 6,000 schools. Two positive outcomes at the end of the second year were reduced skipping of school and greater expectation to attend college.
Mentoring Ex-Prisoners in the Ready4Work Re-entry Initiative
Public Private Ventures, March 2007, 4 pages
Brief findings from a forthcoming report on the mentoring component of the Ready4Work prisoner re-entry initiative. Participants who met with a mentor remained in the program longer, were twice as likely to obtain a job and were more likely to stay employed than those who did not.
'Youth Mentoring: Programs and Practices that Work' Symposium
Summary of an event held in September 2006 by the American Youth Policy Forum. Leading researchers, Jean Rhodes and David DuBois, presented a paper.
Positive Support: Mentoring and Depression Among High-Risk Youth
Public/Private Ventures, July 2006
Examines the benefits of matching high-risk youth with faith-based mentors.
Rewards of Giving: An In-Depth Study of Older Adults' Volunteer Experiences in Urban Elementary Schools
Public/Private Ventures, 2006
Based on interviews with volunteers in Experience Corps, a national service program that recruits, trains and places teams of older adults in underserved urban elementary schools as tutors and mentors.
Mentoring in America 2005: A Snapshot of the Current State of Mentoring
A national poll by US charity MENTOR to measure the attitudes, motivations and behaviours of American adults who mentor or who have the potential to do so.
Research Corner (Mentor)
Mentor/National Mentoring Partnership has produced a series of factsheets summarising mentoring research. Topics include mentoring in foster care, mentoring immigrant youth, how gender shapes youth mentoring relationships, online mentoring, school based mentoring, mentoring and race, benefits of mentoring.
ENCYMO (European Network of Children and Youth Mentoring Organisations)
Their website links to several research reports from the USA looking at the value of mentoring.
The Amachi model
A 2004 briefing on the Amachi initiative - a mentoring program for children of prisoners. Early indications from data collection are promising about the positive effects it is having.
Research from Australia:
A report based on the relative inexperience of mentoring in Australia which led to a study tour of the USA by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum, to learn from their experiences.
What works in reducing young people's involvement in crime?
A review of literature on youth crime prevention by the Australian Institute of Criminology which finds that mentoring can have promising short-term results.
The Landscape of Support for Youth in Transition
Jane Figgis, Department of Education Science and Training, Australian Government, 2004
Provides 48 good practice examples addressing a range of youth transition situations including mentoring.
European research:
Sally Kendal, Kay Kinder, NFER, Nov 2005
A report on the outcomes of a meeting of members of CIDREE. They met to explore issues of disengagement and effective strategies in addressing the problem - and mentoring is discussed here. The report identifies a number of learning points at pupil, national and local levels.
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