A Difference Maker
The most successful mentorship programs — sites where mentors engaged in longer matches and did a better job of retaining older and higher-risk youth — spent more time offering intensive case management.
This report leverages the experiences of four faith-based organizations that developed mentorship programs aimed at supporting older, high-risk youth. Readers will explore data-driven findings, moves to make and challenges to consider when designing similar programs that connect caring adults with youth whose lives have veered off track.
The most successful mentorship programs — sites where mentors engaged in longer matches and did a better job of retaining older and higher-risk youth — spent more time offering intensive case management.
Younger kids (ages 9 to 14) were more likely than older youth (ages 15 to 21) to stick with a mentoring program beyond the 11-month mark. Nearly half (49%) of younger kids reached this mentoring milestone versus only 34% of older youth.
The more times that a young person had been arrested, the shorter their mentoring relationship.
This report explores the work of four sites — Bronx, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Baton Rouge — that developed mentoring programs as part of the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth. While the design and service offerings differed across the four programs, they all sought to address two key issues: 1) the inappropriate faith-sharing by the mentors; and 2) the greater needs — and greater barriers to successful development — facing high-risk youth.
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