...James Spencer HUS345 THE EFFECTS OF MENTORING AT-RISK YOUTH Abstract: Mentoring has arguments both for and against its effectiveness in relation to at-risk youth. These programs have been known to help in areas of self-esteem, attitudes toward drugs and alcohol, grades, attendance and disciplinary problems in school. Although, the scope of at-risk youth can be quite narrow, if administered correctly it can be inclusive of all teens with emotional and behavioral problems. These programs should not be considered a quick fix to such a large problem, but it can be used as a means to an end. Mentoring programs for youth and teens considered to be at-risk have begun to grow throughout the country. Not all programs agree on a generalized approach, but it is fair to say the concept is the same when dealing with this group of youth. The term mentor is basically described as a trusted counselor or teacher. The term at-risk, for purposes of this study, relates to youth from single parent households, who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems. The overall consensus is to pair a responsible and caring adult with a troubled adolescent youth. The ultimate goal is for a relationship to form and to build a bond of trust with an adult who can in turn, help them deal with the troubles...
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...point out lesbian and gay youth can experience victimization across their entire social ecology potentially leaving them with no supportive relationships to rely on (Mishna et al year). This lack of supportive relationships and role models for LGBT youth “likely increase heath and behavioural risks”, and that establishing supportive relationships with “peers, family members or other caring adults” could potentially reduce the “impact of stigma and shield LGBT youth from negative health risks (Bird, Kuhns Garofalo). Of particular significance for LGBT youth may be the “other caring adults’ that may serve as role models for LGBT youth who may lack supportive relationships with peer and family due to the stigmatization of LGBT identities. Bird, Kuhns and Garofalo suggest that role modelling is “an important factor for adolescent development and a critical factor in reducing risk and increasing protective factors for healthy development” (BKG year). They also identified that the effectiveness of these relationships depend on role models who have concern for the youth’s wellbeing and LGBT identity, and one “who is...
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...lifestyle choices. In the five articles reviewed, the findings put into perspective the importance of mentoring programs. The articles that were looked at specifically focused on middle age students, as this is an age where things can rapidly change physically, intellectually and socially. The most common findings of the five articles reviewed found that one-to-one relationships between...
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...Organization Description Be Great is a nonprofit agency providing mentoring programs for middle and high school youth in the Southeast Texas region. The program will form partnerships with local school districts, churches, shelters and the juvenile court system. Be Great is a program that is in direct response to the growing number of young people that are either falling through the cracks at school or are already entangled with the juvenile court system. The goal of the program is to identify youth who are having major difficulties throughout the middle and mainly high school years. Be Great is geared towards being a positive support system for the youth so that any pitfall or distraction may be avoided while on their journey to adulthood....
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...School-Based Mentoring on Youths With Different Relational Profiles Sarah E. O. Schwartz, Jean E. Rhodes, and Christian S. Chan University of Massachusetts Boston Carla Herrera Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Associations between youths’ relationship profiles and mentoring outcomes were explored in the context of a national, randomized study of 1,139 youths (54% female) in geographically diverse Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring programs. The sample included youths in Grades 4 –9 from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, the majority of whom were receiving free or reduced-price lunch. Latent profile analysis, a person-oriented approach, was used to identify 3 distinct relational profiles. Mentoring was found to have differential effects depending on youths’ preintervention approach to relationships. In particular, youths who, at baseline, had satisfactory, but not particularly strong, relationships benefited more from mentoring than did youths with profiles characterized by either strongly positive or negative relationships. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Keywords: youth mentoring, parent relationships, teacher relationships, latent profile analysis Youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) pair youths with volunteers who are trained to provide support and guidance. Such programs have experienced tremendous growth in the past 2 decades. Millions of volunteer mentors are involved in youths’ lives...
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...adults attend, however, the juvenile programs are helpful in a sense that they bring knowledge to young adults and teens about their criminal activities and the future it could bring. One of the programs is called Shining Star Youth Program located in Richmond, Virginia and the second program is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia called the Youth ChalleNGe Program. The Youth ChalleNGe Program founded in 1993 gives a second opportunity to juveniles 16 - 18 year olds who have dropped out of school in success to providing the teenager counseling, structure, job skills, and service of the community and many more skills to succeed in the future (Virginia National Guard Commonwealth ChalleNGe Youth Academy, n.d.). This is the opportunity for a juvenile to make a decision on their future success and decreases them from street crime and negative social environment. As this is a voluntary program, ultimately, the decision is up to the juvenile to succeed in the future. The Shining Star Youth Program located in Richmond, VA creates relationships and alliances with other social service organizations and law enforcement agencies work together to achieve a mutual goal. The program services for the community decreases the number of juvenile curfew and youth violations and promotes education within Richmond’s school...
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...committed a serious crime, prison may be a revelation, but for our youth that commit such crimes, the results could be daunting, even detrimental to the development of the youth. In most instances, the youth does not even realize the consequences to their actions. The juvenile justice system began with the concept parens patriae, meaning when a parent is no longer fit to provide for the welfare of a child, the state must step in and embody that role and provide protection for the wayward or troubled child” (St. Mary’s Law Journal, 2013). The juvenile justice system’s core concept is rehabilitation or change of our youth to the right path. The goal of punishment is not one of revenge, but prevention that the crime will not happen again. Putting our youth in adult prisons, making them face the penalties of such crimes, but if we do this, are we just giving up on our youth, believing that they cannot be rehabilitated? We, the people, need protection for the child that does not know better than to join a gang, the troubled child that comes from a broken home, where both parents are absent or abusive. The people of this community need to make a change for these children so that they will have an opportunity to live a morally healthy life instead of a life of crime. Many questions come up with regard to prosecuting those juveniles that have committed a serious crime and how to rehabilitate or punish our youth, juvenile gangs and different rehabilitation programs are the best...
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...Their mentors would be trained to deal with mental, emotional, and behavioral issues. The mentoring intervention will help youth build life skills for independent living through education and job training. The youth are continually developing and meeting new challenges the mentor's job is to engage the black boys with ongoing assessments.W e will have the mentees and mentors write down their goals and see how the programs can benefit both sides and get their ideas. As a program, we would like to allow the students a place where they can share their ideas in a judgment-free zone where they can dare to dream. Mentors will provide services to directly prepare youth for self - sufficiency through providing opportunities for career exploration and hopefully employment. And eventually, the program can examine the impacts in the short term and...
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...Practice for Mentoring™ Newly revised edition, which includes evidenced-based operational standards Sponsored by Introduction As a strategy for helping young people succeed in school, work and life, mentoring works. It helps give young people the confidence, resources and support they need to achieve their potential. But, the fact is this: these positive outcomes are only possible when young people are engaged in high-quality mentoring relationships. The Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring holds the key to success in producing high-quality relationships. The new edition of the Elements provides six evidence-based standards for practice that incorporate the latest research and best-available practice wisdom. It also reprises advice that appeared in earlier editions on program design and planning; program management; program operations; and program evaluation. We believe adherence to the Elements will ensure that mentoring relationships thrive and endure. They include measures that any mentoring program in any setting can implement, as well as measures that any agency can incorporate within the mentoring element of broad-based, positive youth development programming. This means that community-based, corporate-based, school-based, faith-based and Internet-based mentoring programs can use the Elements to meet the specific needs of the young people they serve and the milieu in which they operate. And, it means that afterschool and other positive youth development programs...
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...17 V. CONCLUSION Introduction………………………………………………………………………….30 Summary and Conclusion……………………………………………………………31 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………32 REFERENCES References………………………………………………………………………...33 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Context of the problem Every year the statistics reveal that more high school students are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. There are many factors that contribute to the high school dropout rate such as: teen pregnancy, substance abuse and socio-economic standards, peer pressure and familial factors. Three-quarters of state prison inmates are high school drop outs, 90% of the 11,000 youth in adult detention facilities have no more than a ninth grade education. In 2010 only 55% of young adult dropouts were employed, compared with 74% of high school graduates and 87% of four-year college graduates. Dropouts cost our nation more than $260 billion dollars in lost wages, lost taxes, and lost productivity over their lifetimes. As the percentages of...
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...big sister of America is an intervention program and it’s our nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring network. Big Brothers Big Sisters strives to make meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 6 through 18, in communities across the country. They develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people. (2018, Big Brother and Big Sisters of America) When someone want to be a Big they will go through a screening and will be matched with a youth. They will typically meet in a school-based program or in a community-based program. The Matches will spend their time doing many things together like talking, doing homework, doing crafts, playing games or sports. When it comes to community-based matches, they also spend time doing activities in the community like attending cultural events, going to restaurants or movies, or exploring other interests. Furthermore, the goals of this program are to bolster youth in achieving their highest potential, to have a positive and measurable difference in the life of each mentored youth, to help youth to become confident, competent, and caring individuals. The target...
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...creativity and effectiveness, and collectively you are focused on providing the highest quality standards. The Mentor Network Charitable Foundation and their ‘Change Agents” have addressed many physical, mental and emotional health needs across the country. Similarly, PCHAS’ mission is to provide Christ-centered care and support for children and families in need. The agency’s vision is for families to have access to quality, professional mental health and social services that are provided in accordance with their identified needs. For 114 years, we have been resolve in our commitment to helping children and their families heal and be empowered, and remain together as a healthy unit. Our organizations have a mutual interest of caring for youth and their families who are facing emotional, behavioral and other challenges. A grant from the Mentor Network Charitable Foundation would help us continue providing services that make a positive difference in the lives of...
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...EN COU CIL OF THE EUROPEA U IO Conclusions on promoting youth entrepreneurship to foster social inclusion of young people EDUCATIO , YOUTH, CULTURE and SPORT Council meeting Brussels, 20 May 2014 The Council adopted the following conclusions: "The Council: ACK OWLEDGI G THAT 1. The economic crisis that started in the second half of the last decade has created a particularly fragile situation for today's young generation. Youth unemployment rates remain historically high, at 23.2% in the EU-28 and 23,8% in the Euro area (December 2013). 2. As a result of such high youth unemployment, young people are experiencing increased levels of poverty and social exclusion and increasing numbers feel compelled to leave their home countries, and sometimes Europe entirely, to look for better opportunities. This is generating a brain drain effect in some Member States which could be difficult to reverse. 3. The European Union, via the Europe 2020 and its flagship initiatives on “New skills and jobs”, “Digital Agenda for Europe”, “Innovation Union”, “Youth on the move” promotes entrepreneurship, by fostering entrepreneurial mindsets and related knowledge, skills and competences that can boost competitiveness and growth that will be smart, sustainable and inclusive. PRESS Rue de la Loi 175 B – 1048 BRUSSELS Tel.: +32 (0)2 281 6319 Fax: +32 (0)2 281 8026 press.office@consilium.europa.eu http://www.consilium.europa.eu/Newsroom 1 E 4. Entrepreneurship is an important driver of economic...
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...Targeted Outreach Strategic Approaches primary approach to gang prevention is to identify and recruit at-risk youth and place them into ongoing Club programs and activities (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2008). The Boys & Girls Clubs of America offer health and life skills, sports fitness and recreation and tutoring (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2008). The programs and activities of the Club help to develop at-risk youth’s character, creativity, and health and mental skills. In addition, the Targeted Outreach program’s receives referrals from schools, courts, law enforcement, and community youth agencies (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2008). These referrals immediately identify at-risk youth for joining gangs. A comprehensive strategy to today’s gang problems incorporates both prevention programs and treatment strategies. Guiding principles are the objectives that the builder of a treatment strategy seeks to achieve (Hess & Drowns, 2004). The guiding principles of a treatment strategy for gang members will develop the framework for structuring the foundation of the core values and philosophies necessary for correcting gang member delinquency. Four guiding principles to be used during the development of an effective treatment strategy for gang members are: 1) encourage compliance with the conditions of probation and drug and alcohol programs; 2) identify and address risk factors for delinquent behaviors and actions in individual, group, and family therapy sessions; 3) provide...
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...This program design will address the following risk factors known to contribute to youth violence: drug and alcohol abuse; negative peer involvement; family/parental guidance; education/vocational skills, and conflict intervention. Our partners Roseland CeaseFire and BI is very experienced in Street Level Intervention, that is designed to address community issues that impact program success and contribute the likelihood of violent behaviors. Roseland Ceasefire Project will conduct home and school visits for those clients who have shown violent tendencies and a disregard for program participation and attendance. These visits are a mechanism to discover if risk factors are contributing to the clients’ failure to comply with program demands and goal. Risk factors include but are not limited to; drug/gang related activities in home and neighborhood, peer pressure and housing instability. At the conclusion of each visit, Roseland Ceasefire Project will prepare and submit a personal environment evaluation summary. Additional home visits will also identify changes in the home environment that impact the client; family relationships (parents...
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