Posted on April 3, 2023 by eporter
Setting Mentees Up for Success: New Building the Foundation for Mentees Instructor-Led Workshop
April 03, 2023, Durham, NC – Building the Foundation for Mentees, Mentoring Central’s interactive, research-informed, highly positively reviewed eLearning course for mentees has been modified for delivery in a live, instructor-led workshop, based upon user requests.
Building the Foundation for Mentees introduces youth to the world of mentoring. Youth who are enrolled in a mentoring program for the first time are often unaware of what a mentoring relationship is, what they may do with their mentor, and how they can benefit from the experience. Entering a mentoring relationship with uncertainty and anxiety will yield fewer positive outcomes for mentees, so mentee training is a vital step in the mentorship process. Building the Foundation for Mentees’ six interactive sections contain reinforcing quizzes, real-world scenarios, and engaging activities to motivate mentees to participate in their mentoring relationship, to help mentees develop skills to create and maintain a supportive relationship with their mentor, and to support mentees to build confidence in themselves in their role as a mentee.
Posted on February 23, 2023 by eporter
Mentoring Central Attends the 13th Annual National Mentoring Summit
Dr. Janis Kupersmidt, Dr. Rebecca Stelter, and Elizabeth Porter represented Mentoring Central, a division of iRT, at the annual National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC, last month. The 2023 Summit, convened by MENTOR, brought mentoring professionals and advocates from across the nation together for expert-led presentations and networking opportunities to share mentoring best practices and drive positive change for young people.
Posted on by eporter
New product! Building the Foundation for Mentees Virtual Toolkit: Demystifying Mentoring for Youth While Building Their Motivation and Skills to Safely and Fully Participate in a Mentoring Relationship
Most mentees participating in a youth mentoring program are signed up to participate by one or more of their parents, and if you ask them, what they will get out of being a mentee in a mentoring program or what a mentor does or what to expect, they often tell you that they have no idea. The Building the Foundation for Mentees workshop was developed to fill this gap in knowledge in youth, as well as to build their interest and motivation to participate. Without proper knowledge about what it means to have a mentoring relationship, mentees may feel apprehensive about being enrolled in a mentoring program. Providing training to mentees about what to expect in a mentoring relationship, the roles and responsibilities of mentors, and the ways the mentee can positively contribute to building a close, positive mentoring relationship can help youth feel more motivated to participate and more skilled in building a stronger, more helpful relationship with a caring volunteer adult.
Posted on February 7, 2023 by eporter
iRT Contributes to the Development of a Disability Inclusion Guide for Mentoring Programs
February 7, 2023, Durham, NC – Youth with disabilities account for a significant portion of the mentees enrolled in mentoring programs across the United States. A national study conducted by MENTOR found that approximately 10 percent of youth served in mentoring programs nationally have a disability.1 However, many mentoring programs lack the resources needed to meet the unique needs of mentees with disabilities. Mentoring program staff must implement inclusive strategies in the training, policies, and design of their mentoring program to achieve positive outcomes for every mentee enrolled in the program.
Posted on February 18, 2022 by jmeyer
iRT Presents Results of Evaluation of National Demonstration Project Designed to Enhance the Impact of Mentoring on Children of Incarcerated Parents
When a parent or caregiver of a child is incarcerated, the impact of incarceration on the child can be a traumatic experience with long-lasting effects. Children of incarcerated caregivers are susceptible to a wide range of negative outcomes, from depression and low self-esteem to substance abuse and delinquent behavior.
To develop new avenues of support and early intervention for youth potentially impacted by the incarceration of a loved one, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funded a multi-year, multi-site national initiative, the Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents (MCOIP) Demonstration Project, in a pair of grant awards. The first award focused on developing and implementing mentoring program enhancements to better serve youth impacted by caregiver incarceration, and the second award focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the new program enhancements.
Posted on May 24, 2021 by Mentoring Central
Dr. Stelter Appointed to the MENTOR NC Board of Directors
Durham, NC, May 5, 2021 – innovation Research & Training is pleased to announce Dr. Rebecca Stelter’s appointment to the MENTOR NC Board of Directors.
MENTOR NC is a non-profit organization that is a state affiliate of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership that is “dedicated to increasing the number of youth in quality mentoring relationships across North Carolina while working to address the systemic barriers that young people face on a daily basis.”
Posted on February 1, 2021 by Richard Van Horn
iRT Awarded NIGMS Grant
Durham, NC, September 30, 2020 – innovation Research & Training (iRT) is expanding its suite of mentor training courses to include training for mentors who work with STEM mentoring programs. The National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded iRT with a grant (R43GM137663) to fund the development of a new, customizable mentor training course that covers new topics that are particularly relevant for informal STEM learning environments. A primary goal of this training will be to attract and retain youth in a STEM field from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM careers including first generation college students, youth with a disability, girls, and youth from an ethnic or racial minority group.
Posted on January 29, 2021 by Richard Van Horn
Dr. Rebecca Stelter, a Research Scientist II at iRT, will be co-presenting at the virtual 2021 National Mentoring Summit https://www.mentoring.org/national-mentoring-summit/ on Intentional program planning to create a safe (virtual) space for mentees during unprecedented times, on Friday, 1/29/2021, from 2:14 – 3:45 PM. Dr. Stelter and her co-presenter, Darlene H. Marlin, Senior Director at National Urban League, will discuss the National Urban League’s Project Ready: Mentor program. The Project Ready: Mentor provides group mentoring to prepare students for college, work, and life through the development of 21st Century, as well as other critical social skills. The program also has the goal of fostering personal, global, and cultural awareness. Project Ready: Mentor is built on the research-based best practices outlined in the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring and the 110 years of the NUL’s racial justice and education work. This session will provide attendees with key practices for creating physically and emotionally safe spaces for mentees to participate in a group mentoring program that meets their needs and builds their assets.
Posted on June 4, 2019 by abaxter
iRT Partners with College Access for All
iRT has partnered with College Access for All, an initiative developed by NYC Schools and Mayor Bill de Blasio to ensure all students are engaged in a “college-ready” culture.
Hundreds of schools participate in this initiative, which was designed to help students form a career and college plan upon graduation from high school. College Access for All provides several support services for students, including funding Student Success Centers, eliminating application fees to the City University of New York, and providing for high school juniors to take the SAT for free.
Posted on December 26, 2017 by Mentoring Central
December 18, 2017 New York, NY–The William T. Grant Foundation is pleased to announce that Janis Kupersmidt, innovation Research & Training, Jean E. Rhodes, Dept. of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Sarah Schwartz, Dept. of Psychology, Suffolk University, and Renee Spencer, Dept. of Human Behavior, School of Social Work, Boston University, received a Research Award under the Foundation’s Reducing Inequality focus area. This grant funds high quality, empirical projects that examine programs, policies, and practices that can reduce inequality among young people in the U.S. Their three-year grant is in the amount of $582,150.
“I am excited about this study and am hopeful that leveraging a mentoring intervention will help to improve academic outcomes for racial/ethnic minorities and low-income college students” said Adam Gamoran, President of the Foundation.
For more information, see the William T. Grant Foundation.