1. Sarah Schwartz, Suffolk University
youth initiated mentoring: Expanding our approach to building mentoring relationships
Sarah Schwartz, Suffolk University

3. Youth Mentoring -Urie Bronfenbrenner, 1991
“Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her.”
-Urie Bronfenbrenner, 1991

4. A New Model of Youth Mentoring
Natural Mentoring
Formal Mentoring
Youth Initiated Mentoring

5. Consider:
Where do your services lie on the continuum from natural to formal mentoring?
What (if anything) are you currently doing to facilitate natural mentoring relationships?

6. Theoretical Rationale for YIM
Builds on strengths of natural mentoring
AND provides scaffolding to support development of mentoring relationships
Autonomy in selecting mentors may increase investment, esp. for adolescents and emerging adults
May address shortage of volunteer mentors
Encourages the development of networks of supportive adults
Teaches generalizable skills to cultivate mentors

7. Support for YIM Model
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (Schwartz et al., 2013)
Midlands Mentoring Partnership (Spencer et al., 2016)
Dutch Youth Care System (van Dam et al., 2017): YIM as an Alternative to Out of Care Placement

8. Empowering Youth to Recruit Support

9. Connected Scholars Program: Overview

10. Model of CSP and Expected Outcomes
Attitudes:
Network orientation/value of social capital; Attitudes towards help-seeking
Behavior:
Engaging in help-seeking; Self-advocacy
Social Capital:
Connections with professors/staff; Mentoring relationships; Use of university services
Under-represented Students
Connected Scholars Program
GPA; College Persistence

11. Learning to Develop Social Capital
“I always used to be the guy who just sits around, ‘cause I didn’t like approaching people...So now I’m like, ‘I should go for it’...cause...you’re always gonna need somebody there to help you, somebody by your side, somebody who always has your back.”
“I didn’t know you can just ask a person if they know someone that kind of [is] related to something you want to do.”
“I mean, I’m still shy, but not like as much as I was. Like, I could go to someone and actually talk to them about something, like informational support or something like that.”

12. Abbreviated CSP Intervention: 4 one-hour sessions

13. Evaluation
Baseline Survey (June)
Follow-up Survey (July)
Qualitative Interviews (April-May)
University Records (June)
Summer Remedial Program/CSP Intervention
Academic Year
Sample: First-generation incoming college students in a remedial summer “bridge” program, primarily students of color

14. Creating Connected Students
 Intention to Seek Support in College
 Network Orientation
 Help Seeking Avoidance
 Relationships with Instructors
 Grades

15. Qualitative Results: Program Outcomes
Theme
Example
Improved Relationships with Instructors
Those two professors that I met through [the program], I've been going to their office a lot...Sometimes I would just go once a week, and I wouldn't ever think much of going to a professor's office like that.
Decreased Help-Seeking Avoidance
If I stay after the class and I talk to the teacher about it, then I clear it up, “You're a teacher. I'm having a little struggle with this, can you help me out?”
Increased Network Orientation
Having a good relationship with your mentor can like give you a lot of connections… getting an internship or a job is all about like networking, that person knows someone, someone knows the other person, you know? That mentor helps you build that connection and he also prepares you on what to expect, because they already know the process, so they'll just tell you the direction to go.
Increased Intention to Recruit Support
I went and talked to [my professor], asked if she wanted to be my mentor, and she said ‘that's fine.’ She's now talking to me.

16. Circles of Support
Majority of participants (10 of 12) reported having one or more mentor (some formal and some informal)
Most participants drew on a distributed mentoring model going to different people, including peers, university staff, professors, and off-campus connections for different types of support
Data suggested an “anchor-web” (Center for Promise, 2015) model for many participants, where a mentor helped them connect with a broader web of support
“I talked to [my mentor]...she’s like maybe you should reach out to the psychologist and she like ed [] the psychologist for me...”
“I was really struggling with this math class...When I went down to go talk to [my mentor], she...told me [they] have tutors every week and also go talk to the professor at office hours...The office hours were helpful, but sometimes what I found not helpful was the tutoring...I tried one of the [program] tutorings and those were a little bit better than the other one.”

17. Expanding our Approach to Mentoring
Natural Mentoring
Formal Mentoring
Everyday Mentoring
Network Engaged Mentoring
Youth Initiated Mentoring
Everyday Mentoring: Teaching adults in contexts with youth to be take on mentoring roles
Adult-Youth Relationship Building Workshops: Project DREAM, Noelle Hurd
Network Engaged Mentoring: Start with a formal mentoring relationship and then transition to informal; formal mentor helps mentee identify and reach out to natural mentors as part of termination process
Connected Scholars Program
Adult-Youth
Workshops

18. Consider:
How might some of these models or principles fit in to your programming?
What are some potential benefits?
What are some potential barriers?

19. Acknowledgments Participating students and instructors!
For additional information/manuscripts, contact: Sarah Schwartz at