Mentoring

Mentor with teenagerApproximately 5,000 mentoring programs across the U.S. serve about three million youth, according to the MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership. The Corporation for National and Community Service reports that almost 12 million Americans volunteer their time as mentors annually.

Mentoring has evolved to address serious youth-related social problems through peer, group, and e-mentoring programs in settings such as afterschool programs, faith-based organizations, and work sites. Mentoring serves youth in foster care, children of incarcerated parents, immigrant youth, juvenile delinquents, juveniles re-entering the community, and children in military families, with the goal of improving academic performance, decreasing recidivism and substance use, and building interest in future careers.


Related Topics

Juvenile Justice

Latest Work

Illustration of Roger Jarjoura
25 Feb 2020
Q & A

Meet the Expert: Roger Jarjoura

Roger Jarjoura is on the leadership team for AIR’s National Reentry Resource Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to joining AIR in 2012, he spent 19 years as a faculty member in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where he served as a fellow on community engagement.
10 Jul 2019
Q & A

The Education Connection: Helping Ex-Offenders Return to Their Communities

Each year, 700,000 people are released from federal and state prisons. For many, the transition home is not easy. They face obstacles including poverty, drug abuse, family dysfunction, and lack of access to services and treatment. Failure to reconnect can mean that many end up back in prison. AIR's Roger Jarjoura spoke about the role education plays in helping ex-offenders stay out of the justice system.
Image of man on a bench with his arm around a boy
22 Feb 2019
Q & A

A Quick Word About Mentoring With: Manolya Tanyu, Senior Researcher

The 2012 Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration program was designed to strengthen existing youth mentoring programs across the United States. In this Q&A, Manolya Tanyu describes the effectiveness of the programmatic enhancements—and the challenges of implementing them across a wide array of youth mentoring organizations.
Project

Evaluation of OJJDP’s Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program

Millions of children across the United States benefit from mentoring every year. Selected by the U.S. Library of Congress, AIR conducted a five-year evaluation of mentoring enhancement demonstration programs funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The goal is to assess whether strategic enhancements to the roles that mentors play will improve youth outcomes.
2 Aug 2017
Spotlight

Youth Violence Prevention

The complex factors contributing to youth violence in the U.S. and abroad are found at the individual, family, community, and societal levels.

1 Feb 2017
Brief

Mentoring for At-Risk High School Students: Findings From a Study of Check & Connect

To improve graduation rates, districts and schools need clear, evidence-based information about the impact of dropout prevention strategies. Check & Connect is a mentoring program designed to promote positive outcomes (including student engagement, progress and persistence, and school completion) through the provision of continuous, individualized student support. This research brief describes a longitudinal study of Check & Connect in a large, urban district in California.
1 Jan 2017
ESSA

ESSA │Family and Community Engagement

Mounting evidence indicates that family engagement in education is a necessary component for positive student outcomes and overall school improvement. AIR uses a practical approach that is based on a framework grounded in research to build state, district, and school capacity, helping them to recognize their individual and collective responsibility for family engagement.
19 May 2016
In the Field

Helping Ex-Offenders Return to Their Communities: An Interview with Roger Jarjoura

More than nine million individuals are released from correctional facilities annually, and the transition home is not always easy. Many face numerous obstacles including poverty, drug abuse, family dysfunction, and lack of access to services and treatment. Failure to reconnect can mean that many end up back in prison: 68 percent of those released are incarcerated again within five years. AIR expert Roger Jarjoura shares his insights on how education can play a role in helping ex-offenders stay out of the justice system.
10 Sep 2014
App

T4TA: Text 4 Technical Assistance

T4TA: Text 4 Technical Assistance connects users with experts and resources through their mobile phones on topics such as child welfare, juvenile justice, school climate, mentoring, youth development, and addressing disparities.
21 May 2014 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Event

Reconnecting System-Involved Youth: A Developmental Approach

Every year, hundreds of thousands of youth exit the juvenile justice and foster care systems, and many will struggle with transitioning to adulthood. AIR invites you to a briefing highlighting developmental approaches to effectively transition youth involved in systems, the experiences and needs of these youth, and mentoring as a fundamental support to help reconnect youth to education, employment, and community.
21 May 2014
Spotlight

Resources: A Developmental Approach to Reconnecting System-Involved Youth

On May 21, 2014, AIR hosted a briefing with U.S. Representative Robert “Bobby” Scott on Reconnecting System-Involved Youth: A Developmental Approach. Resources on topics related to that event are listed here.
19 May 2014
Video

Long Story Short: How Can Mentoring Help Children of Incarcerated Parents?

Almost two million children in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent. In this video interview, Roger Jarjoura, principal researcher at AIR, explains how mentoring can help them stay engaged in school and thrive.
3 Mar 2014
Report

Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Synthesis of Research and a September 2013 Listening Session

About 1.7 million youth in the U.S. have at least one parent in prison. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of parents held in prisons has risen 79 percent from 1991-2007. Youth with incarcerated parents fare worse than other youth on a range of educational and physical and mental health outcomes. Released at the end of January, Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Synthesis of Research and a September 2013 Listening Session synthesizes research and the voices and opinions of mentoring experts, practitioners, parents and youth shared at a listening session.
4 Jan 2013
Brief

Effective Strategies for Mentoring African American Boys

Very few mentoring programs have been scientifically evaluated or established as evidence-based practices. However, some programs show empirical evidence that participating youth do better.

13 Apr 2011
Report

Listening Session Summary: Focus on Youth Enrichment, Youth Engagement, Youth Mentoring, and Positive Youth Development (San Francisco, CA)

This summary is one of ten reports from a series of public listening sessions held by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) and supported and facilitated by AIR.
8 Apr 2011
Toolkit

The Mentoring Toolkit: Resources for Developing Programs for Incarcerated Youth

This toolkit provides information, program descriptions, and links to important resources.