Posted by eporter on September 27, 2024
How the Science of Hope Can Help Your Mentees Flourish
Many community organizations, behavioral health providers, educational institutions, and mentoring programs are integrating the science of hope into their practices to improve the health and wellbeing of groups they serve. The word “hope” tends to bring positive thoughts, and we often use the word to bring encouragement to others in times of hardship or need. But, what does hope really mean, and how can it benefit your mentoring program?
Below, we will describe some of the benefits of integrating concepts of hope in your program’s practices and practical ways to do so.
What is the science of hope, and why is it important to build hope within your program?
Hope may be defined as the feeling or belief in a positive outcome. Hope is often characterized as the feeling that the future will turn out brighter than the present or the past. Hope can also be characterized by the belief that you are capable of achieving certain goals.
Hope is a motivator and a strong predictor of wellbeing. In fact, feelings of hope been found to be associated with better physical health, mental health, social wellbeing, and academic outcomes.1,2
Whether your mentees are struggling in school, have been impacted by substance use, or need encouragement to achieve their goals, integrating practices that build hope in your program can help them achieve better outcomes.
Encouraging growth mindset and confidence.
An essential component of hope is having a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset means that an individual believes that they can learn and grow. When an individual feels confident in their abilities to improve their skills or their habits, they may be more likely to set goals and work towards them.
Mentoring programs should consider training mentors on what growth mindset is, why it is important to encourage in their mentee, and how to help their mentee build a growth mindset. By helping their mentee build confidence in their abilities to grow and change, mentors can set their mentee up with a solid foundation to work towards better outcomes and respond to challenges.
For example, youth who have a growth mindset are more likely to respond constructively to academic challenges than youth without a growth mindset and show excitement and persistence when faced with challenges.3
Building goal setting and planning skills.
Goal setting and planning is another essential component of the science of hope. Once a person believes that they can grow and change, they can begin to set their goals and plan how they will achieve them.
Mentors can play an impactful role in helping their mentee set their goals and create a plan for working towards them. Mentoring programs should consider training their mentors on how to help their mentee build goal setting and planning skills, so their mentee has a solid understanding of what they want to achieve for themselves and practical ways to do so.
Summary.
Hope involves both goal setting and planning and growth mindset. Simply put, when an individual has hope, they may feel that they have the competence and willpower to achieve positive outcomes and that there are practical steps they can take to achieve their goals. These feelings of hope can help an individual feel motivated to work towards their goals, leading to greater goal achievement and improved wellbeing.
High-quality, specialized training can help mentors learn practical ways that they can help their mentee build a growth mindset and set goals for themselves through everyday conversations with their mentees. Sometimes, mentees look up to their mentor and trust their mentor’s opinions and advice. However, simply telling a mentee that they are capable of growth or that they should set goals for themselves may not be an effective way to help mentees build hope. Instead, mentors should aim to help their mentees build a growth mindset and set goals themselves by supporting and encouraging them.
Promoting Enhanced Resilience & Learning (PERL) is Mentoring Central’s web-based training that incorporates concepts of the science of hope to help mentors help their mentees achieve positive outcomes. PERL is designed to teach mentors how to promote a growth mindset and goal setting in their mentee for better academic outcomes. More specifically, the training helps mentors learn to support and encourage their mentees to build hope and make changes themselves. To learn more about PERL, visit https://mentoringcentral.net/mentoring-training/perl/.