Press Releases

2024-04-23

Mentoring Central Recognized on the 2024 National Corporate Mentoring Honor Roll

Mentoring Central, a division of innovation Research & Training (iRT), is pleased to announce that it has joined MENTOR’s 2024 National Corporate Mentoring Honor Roll.

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2024-03-25

Latest Funding Opportunities for Mentoring Programs

The U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) recently announced 2024 funding opportunities for youth-serving organizations and programs, including youth mentoring programs. The OJJDP’s Youth Mentoring Program Grants program is the only mentoring-specific grant program funded by U.S. Congress. The OJJDP’s latest announced solicitations that are relevant to mentoring programs include the 2024 National Mentoring Programs grant, the 2024 Opioid Affected Youth Initiative grant, and the 2024 Second Chance Act Youth Reentry Program grant. These grants provide support to mentoring programs, so you can offer evidence-based training to your mentors, provide high-quality resources and activities to matches, employ a team of professional mentoring program staff, evaluate your program, and more.

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2024-03-25

Recent Research Supporting STEM Mentoring for Traditionally Underrepresented Youth

Recent research indicates that opportunities for students to explore their interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are growing. The Afterschool Alliance’s 2021 America After 3PM Special Report states that among approximately 31,000 randomly selected parents of school-aged children in the United States, 39% reported that their child’s school offered a technology- or engineering-related afterschool program in 2020. This was a significant increase compared to findings from 2014 surveys which indicated that only 30% of schools offered engineering and technology learning opportunities in afterschool programs. Science-related afterschool programs increased from 46% in 2014 to 49% in 2020, and math-related programs increased from 60% to 62%.

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2024-02-27

Mentoring Central Shares STEM Mentoring Research at 2024 National Mentoring Summit

Mentoring Central Researchers Dr. Katie Stump, Dr. Rebecca Stelter, and Yontii Wheeler co-led an interactive workshop at the 2024 National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC, last month. Each year, mentoring professionals and advocates from across the nation gather for the annual National Mentoring Summit, convened by MENTOR, to share best practices, reflect on recent research and developments, and discuss future directions related to mentoring. The 14th annual Mentoring Summit was held January 24-26, 2024 and provided opportunities for attendees to form new connections and learn new strategies for strengthening and expanding the youth mentoring movement.

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2024-02-13

Mentoring Central President Presents at the 2024 National Mentoring Summit

Mentoring Central President Dr. Janis Kupersmidt co-led a workshop at the 14th annual National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC, last month to discuss the need for additional training for mentors who are serving youth impacted by substance misuse.

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Events

Webinar: Applying the EEPM 4 to Diverse Models and Youth Populations [free]

Applying the EEPM 4 to Diverse Models and Youth Populations [free]

2/25/16 1-2:30pm EST

~ 75 minutes

Applying the EEPM 4 to Diverse Models and Youth Populations will provide attendees with an interactive discussion on how the Elements of Effective Practice applies to mentoring programs given the diverse array of mentee and mentor populations and program models. In addition, we will solicit questions and feedback from attendees regarding how the EEPM applies to their programs.

Take the free training at: Free Mentoring Central

[Webinar] Risk Management Part 2 – 1pm (EST) Feb. 16, 2016

Risky Business (Part 2): Developing your mentoring program’s risk management policies [free]

Take the Free Training at Free Mentoring Central

A mentoring relationship cannot be considered effective unless it is safe. Training on ethics and safety in mentoring is critical to ensuring the health and well-being of mentees and mentors. The recently released Fourth Edition of the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring (EEPM) identified a set of risk management topics that programs should address in their policies and include in their training of mentors, mentees, and parent or guardians. This three-part webinar series will focus on how mentoring programs can decrease the potential for harm to anyone involved in a mentoring relationship.

Join our expert researchers (Drs. Janis Kupersmidt and Rebecca Stelter) and practitioner (Ms. Sharon Daura) who will provide a thorough exploration of the 19 risk management topics outlined in the EEPM, with the goal of helping you to fine-tune your existing program policies or develop new ones.  After you attend these webinars, you will understand the importance and relevance of each topic for mentoring as well as key issues to address in your policies.  Future training will focus on how to conduct mentor, mentee, and parent or guardian training on these policies.

The second webinar in the series focuses on issues to consider in a mentoring program’s risk management policies and practices that are related to communications by mentors, mentees, parents or guardians, and the mentoring program with individuals, organizations, and media outlets that are outside of the mentoring relationship.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Youth Mentoring Movement

Monday, November 9, New York City—The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is proud to celebrate 25 years of building and unifying a youth mentoring movement in 2015! This yearlong celebration will include a special event at The Plaza Hotel on Monday, November 9 honoring MENTOR’s co-founders and commemorating a quarter of a century of milestones and achievements in the field. More on this celebration: bit.ly/1Hh0WIe.

Advanced Screening

November 17, Boston–Join Mass Mentoring Partnership for an advanced training that will build upon the basics of screening. Participants will have the opportunity to refine program eligibility requirements, receive feedback on program applications and interview forms, enhance awareness of red flags, and practice relevant steps in the screening process.  Participants will receive MMP’s Advanced Screening Workbook which contains useful tools and templates to support screening of volunteers and mentors. Register: bit.ly/1MP0gr1

National Mentoring Month: Amplifying Your Voice

November 19, 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., EDT–Planning to participate in National Mentoring Month this January? Join this webinar to learn best practices for amplifying your voice during this yearly recruitment campaign. We will feature panelists from Midlands Mentoring Partnership in Nebraska, TeamMates Mentoring in Iowa and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mid-South in Tennessee. Each presenter will speak on a different way to engage throughout the month. Whether you represent a small, mid-size or large program, there will be plenty of useful information shared. Register now! Facilitated by MENTOR. For more information: bit.ly/1k5bGjb

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Blog

2024-04-23
How Mentoring Programs Can Promote Safe Driving Among Young People

By eporter

How Mentoring Programs Can Promote Safe Driving Among Young People

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which is an important time to spread awareness of the dangers of distracted driving and strategies to prevent it. Distracted driving can significantly increase the chance of vehicle crashes as well as death or injury for drivers and passengers. Distractions can come in various forms for drivers, including using a mobile device, eating or drinking, talking to passengers, or fidgeting with a navigation device or radio while driving.

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2024-04-22
Tips for Promoting Healthy Mentoring Relationship Closure

By eporter

Tips for Promoting Healthy Mentoring Relationship Closure

For some mentoring programs, particularly school-based mentoring programs, the lifecycle of the mentoring relationship follows the schedule of the academic year. This means that many mentoring relationships will soon come to a close, or matches must redefine their relationship. As summer approaches and the school year comes to an end for many students, mentoring program staff and mentors should begin preparing to close or redefine their mentoring relationships in a healthy, impactful way.

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2024-04-19
The Importance of Training Mentors to Build Critical Consciousness and Cultural Humility

By eporter

The Importance of Training Mentors to Build Critical Consciousness and Cultural Humility

Abbey N. Collins, B.A

Cultural competency training of mentors and mentoring program staff members has many direct and indirect benefits to mentors, mentees, mentoring relationships, and mentoring programs, as we described in a previous article. The central goal of cultural competency training for mentors is to increase mentors’ knowledge about the culture they come from as well as the culture and customs of other individuals. Cultural competency training can help mentors improve mentees’ ethnic identity exploration, positive views of their identity, sense of belonging, academic success, retention in various fields such as STEM, self-efficacy, and developmental outcomes. Cultural competency is an important starting point for mentors to understand their cultural biases and develop greater cultural awareness; however, emerging research suggests that it is necessary for mentors to also learn about the systemic factors that affect the lives of their mentees.1,2

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Jobs

2023-05-15
Business Development Associate

By eporter

POSITION TITLE: Business Development Associate
EMPLOYER: Innovation Research & Training
LOCATION (City, State): Durham, NC
WEBSITES: www.irtinc.us; www.mentoringcentral.net; www.preventioncentral.net
START DATE: Available immediately

Position Type: Full-time

Company Description: innovation Research & Training (iRT), a behavioral sciences research company, in Durham, North Carolina, seeks a full-time Business Development Associate who desires to join an outstanding team. iRT is a small, innovative company that specializes in research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence-based prevention and intervention programs. Our mission is to create products and services with proven outcomes that improve the health and well-being of children, adolescents, young adults, families, and communities.

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