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.
How Mentoring Programs Can Promote Safe Driving Among Young People
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.
Tips for Promoting Healthy Mentoring Relationship Closure
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.
The Importance of Training Mentors to Build Critical Consciousness and Cultural Humility
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
Latest Funding Opportunities for Mentoring Programs
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.
Recent Research Supporting STEM Mentoring for Traditionally Underrepresented Youth
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%.
Customize Mentoring Trainings to Reflect Your Program
Customize Mentoring Trainings to Reflect Your Program
When offering training to mentors, mentees, and parents/caregivers of mentees involved your mentoring program, you likely want to be sure that the trainings you offer not only provide essential information participants need for a successful mentoring relationship but also reflect your program’s specific mission, policies, practices, and branding. Mentoring Central offers options to customize any of our mentoring training courses, so you can elevate your program participants’ training experiences and achieve your program’s goals.
Mentoring Central Shares STEM Mentoring Research at 2024 National Mentoring Summit
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.
Why Cultural Competency Training Should Be Offered to Mentors and Mentoring Program Staff
Why Cultural Competency Training Should Be Offered to Mentors and Mentoring Program Staff
Abbey N. Collins, B.A
In the United States, the number of youth involved in mentoring programs has grown considerably over the past century since the establishment of the first organized mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.1,2 In particular, mentoring programs are popular interventions for a great number of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth.3,4 In fact, it is estimated that approximately 76% of the mentees served in the U.S. are BIPOC children and adolescents; however, the majority (53%) of the mentors who serve these populations are non-Hispanic White individuals.3,5 This discrepancy in race and background often creates a “sociocultural gap” in which there is a disconnect between the experiences of the mentors and their mentees, which might have deleterious impacts, not only on the mentoring relationship but also on the mentee.6,7 To address this gap, youth mentoring programs have begun implementing cultural competency training for mentors to help mentors better understand the background and experiences their mentees bring to the mentoring relationship.
Why Your Mentoring Program Should Provide Training to Parents/Caregivers of Mentees
Why Your Mentoring Program Should Provide Training to Parents/Caregivers of Mentees
A common misconception about mentoring is that an impactful mentoring experience for a child consists solely of a supportive relationship between a mentor and a mentee. In truth, the model of successful mentoring is complex and consists of various interdependent relationships between the mentor, mentoring program staff, and parents or caregivers of the mentee, all working together to contribute to positive, impactful experiences for the mentee.1