Building Critical Social Infrastructure: The business case for expanding suport for school based mentoring in Australia
Many Australian school based mentoring programs are vulnerable. Programs usually survive on short term funding cycles and they are most often in special grant categories, rather than part of the mainstream education budgets. Sustainability relies on adequate funding over an extended period in order to build and maintain a pool of effective mentors.
This reports discusses the rationale for school based mentoring in Australia and provides an overview of mentoring in Australian schools. It proposes a 10 point plan for developing a national school based mentoring strategy which can be achieved by:
Mentoring Matters: YMN Registered Programs National Survey Findings 2007
The Mentoring Matters report has four key findings:
• Most programs believe that mentees are motivated to participate in mentoring by having someone who supports them and provides friendship (56%). This is followed by careers guidance (17%) and to develop skills and work experience (15%).
• More than a third of mentoring programs’ funding ceases on the 31st December this year (35%). Only 2% of programs have access to an ongoing funding arrangement.
• An overwhelming majority of program practitioners believe that there are NOT enough resources and services accessible in their community for children and young people (74%).
• Funding is the largest factor identified to assist in developing mentoring programs (26%). This was followed closely by professional development and training (21%), networking (13%) and promotion of mentoring including sponsorship (11%).
Towards a Sustainable Mentoring Strategy The Youth Mentoring Network has released a policy strategy to stimulate debate and ideas to launch youth mentoring in Australia from a solid and carefully constructed base, to a widely recognised and successful practice
Young People and Mentoring: towards a national strategy A report prepared for Big Brothers Big Sisters, Dusseldorp Skills Forum and The Smith Family by Robyn Hartley (2004)
Connecting for Careers: The iTrack Youth Mentoring Program
iTrack is an online mentoring program focusing on the school to work transition. It aims to provide students with opportunities to develop appropriate relationships with supportive adults other than a teacher or parent, and to provide information to students about workplace, study and career opportunities.
This report, by The Smith Family, tracks the progress and outcomes of two sets of iTrack students: the first with access to face-to-face meetings with their mentor, and the second undertaking a purely online relationship. The findings suggest that students who do not participate in face-to-face meetings with their mentors during the program do not appear to be disadvantaged by this in terms of their skill development gained through the program.
** NEW** A Development Perspective on College & Workplace Readiness
By Laura Lippman, Astrid Atienza, Andrew Rivers, Julie Keith - September 2008
This American report provides a developmental perspective on what competencies young people need to be ready for college, the workplace, and the transition to adulthood.
The report looks at the importance of mentoring in order to assist young people from disadvantaged and at-risk backgrounds from achieving the competencies required for the transition to adulthood.
** NEW** Standing Tall: A School Based Mentoring Program - Report for Handbury Fellowship 2008
Written by Jeanette Pritchard
Standing Tall is a school-based mentoring program which has been implemented at both Baimbridge and Camperdown Secondary Colleges in Barwon South West Region of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development of Victoria.
This report looks at mentoring in the context of the current research on the well-being of young people in Australia, the link between well-being and educational outcomes and the current thinking regarding well-being by the Victorian Government.
High School Students as Mentors: Findings From the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study
by Carla Herrera, Jean Baldwin Grossman, Tina J. Kauh, Siobhan M Cooney and Jennifer McMaken 2008, 50 pages
This paper looks at whether matches with high school Bigs differ from those with adult volunteers and whether Littles and their mentors benefit from the match.
Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study
by Carla Herrera, Jean Baldwin Grossman, Tina J. Kauh, Amy F. Feldman and Jennifer McMaken with Linda Z. Jucovy August 2007, 126 pages
School-based mentoring is one of the fastest growing forms of mentoring in the US today; yet, few studies have rigorously examined its impacts. This landmark random assignment impact study of Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring is the first national study of this program model.
The report describes the programs and their participants and answers several key questions, including: Does school-based mentoring work? What kinds of mentoring experiences help to ensure benefits? How much do these programs cost? Our findings highlight both the strengths of this program model and its current limitations and suggest several recommendations for refining this promising model—recommendations that Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across the country are already working to implement.
Mentoring and Young People: A Literature Review by Hall, J.C; (2003); The SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow
This literature review looks at the definition of mentoring and in the case of this report, examines the lack of clearly defined definitions. The report examines what works and doesn't work in a mentoring program taking into account research which looks at the success of mentoring from three points of view, the mentees, mentors and governing bodies or staff that run the programs. The literature review focuses primarily on research carried out in the United States and UK.
School-Based Mentoring: A Closer Look by Herrea, C (2005) Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures
This document follows on from Herrea's earlier research of school based mentoring (SBM). In this report, Herrea takes a closer look at the characteristics of mentor-youth matches in SBM, the quality of the relationships and the benefits gained from being within such a program. The findings of this report are based on research carried out on three American BBBS programs all running school based programs along with their traditional community based programs.
Measuring the Quality of Mentor-Youth Relationships: A tool for Mentoring Programsby Jucovy, L. (2002). Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures
This document provides program coordinators with useful tools which not only assist with supporting and monitoring individual matches but also provides the resources to look at what makes the individual relationships in your own program successful. The pack provides the user with tools to examine where the program's strengths and weakness are in all of their matches.
How to Build A Successful Mentoring Program Using the Elements of Effective Practice™
This tool kit was developed by the MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership to provide both people who are new to mentoring and experienced with the relevant tools to enable them to create a program that meets the American standards of effective mentoring practices. The tool kit is comprised of tools, templates and advice that compliment the Elements of Effective Practice™.
Original material by Linda Jucovy. Revised content by Michael Garringer. Revised September 2007
This document is part of the Technical Assistance Packs designed by Public/Private Ventures, North West Regional Education Laboratories and the Office of Juvenile Justice in the USA. This document will assist anyone wanting to create a school based mentoring program in their community. It works through the different steps from partnering with your local schools to supporting your mentoring pairs. The package provides templates and a serries of questions which the program coordinator would use as the necessary steps to establish the program.
Handbook of Youth Mentoring Edited by: David L. DuBois University of Illinois, Chicago Michael J. Karcher University of Texas at San Antonio Series: The SAGE Program on Applied Developmental Science
Role Models for Young People: What makes an effective role model program? A report to the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme in 2002 by Judith MacCallum and Susan Beltman
Mentoring in Schools by Members of the Community Written by Judith MacCallum and Susan Beltman Centre for Curriculum and Professional Development Murdoch University
This report identifies models of good practice of mentoring in school settings and looks at issues associated with the implementation of mentoring programs in these settings and makes key recommendations for consideration by Australian schools and education systems.
Evaluation of the Plan-It Youth Program - Final Report 2007 A report to the NSW Department of Education and Training evaluating the Plan-IT Youth mentoring program
Beltman, S. & MacCallum, J. (2006) Mentoring and the development of resilience: An Australian perspective. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 8, 17-28
DuBois, D.L., Holloway, B.E., Valentine, J.C. and Cooper, H. (2002) 'Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: A meta-analytical review', American Journal of Community Psychology, 30 (2), 157-197.
Grossman, J.B. and Garry, E. (1997) Mentoring: A proven delinquency prevention strategy. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Bulletin.) Washington: US Department of Justice.
Herrera, C. (1999) School-based mentoring: A first look into its potential. Philadelphia: Public/ Private Ventures.
Herrera, C., Vang, Z. and Gale, L.Y. (2002) Group mentoring: A study of mentoring groups in three programs. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.
Koerner, C and Harris, J (2007) 'Inspired Learning: Creating engaged teaching and learning environments for university and school mentor programs', International Edcuation Journal, 8(2), 354-364
Moodie, M. L. and Fisher, J (2009) 'Are Youth Mentoring Programs Good Value-for-money? An Evaluation of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Melbourne Program', BMC Public Health www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/41** NEW **
Philip, K. (2000a) 'Mentoring: Pitfalls and potential for young people?', Youth and Policy, 67, 1-15.
Philip, K. and Hendry, L.B. (2000) 'Making sense of mentoring or mentoring making sense? Reflections on the mentoring process by adult mentors with young people', Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 10, 211-223.
Rhodes, J (2008) 'Improving Youth Mentoring Interventions Through Research-Based Practice', American Journal of Community Psychology, Volume 41, Nos 1-2, pp 35-42
Styles and Morrow (1992) Understanding how elders and youth form relationships: A study of four linking lifetimes projects. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.
