Papers and Articles Available Online about Mentoring
We continually scan the Internet for resources about mentoring. If you are concerned about "not reinventing the wheel," these papers might be of use. However, if you want to create your own ideas, then the wisdom of Joseph Campbell in Creative Mythology (1968, p. 4) might be useful:
"Some people spend a lifetime attempting to live according to cultural images that never quite fit them. Whenever a knight of the Grail tried to follow a path made by someone else, he went altogether astray. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's footsteps. Each of us has to find our own way."
The papers listed here, their brief summaries, and the links to the original and usually complete article, are typically the most up-to-date available.
We make every effort to maintain live links, but with such rapid changes in how organizations publish or make available their materials, it is likey that some links may have gone stale or no longer go directly to the article. In addition some publications may have switched from free access to requiring a free or paid registration. In other cases, we could only provide a hotlink to the actual publication and not the specific article. Usually the publication has its own search engine which will allow visitors to find the specific article on their site. Unfortunately, sites vary as to how easy or difficult they make such a search. Please let us know if you encounter any of these problems, so that we can fix them or alert other readers.
For additional papers, articles, and books use our Searchable Annotated Bibliography on Mentoring.
To access the most current and all back issues of our free ezine, The Mentor News, go to www.mentors.ca/thementornews.html. The publication is advertising and commercial free and examines trends, issues, and research, and provides announcements regarding mentoring events and conferences as well as funding sources.
The newly redesigned website of the International Mentoring Association now includes a very comprehensive annotated bibliography on mentoring.
Another excellent source of journal articles, magazines, and books on mentors and mentoring can be found at Questia, described as the world's largest online library. While brief previews are available, full articles require a paid subscription.
Foster-Turner, J. (2006). Coaching and mentoring in health and social care: The essentials of practice for professionals and organisations. Oxford, UK: Radcliffe. (Review available to Peer Resources Network members..)
Rivero, V. (u.d). Mentors guide students to turn interests into action. Fort Collins, Colorado: International Telementor Program. Details about how the International Telementor Program has connected more than 36,000 youth with real-world professionals through online mentoring. (Full article available to Peer Resources Network members by contacting rcarr@mentors.ca)
Ford, V. (2003). Am I ready to mentor? Boston, MA: Novations Group, Inc. (Retrieved November 9, 2006 and available in the Peer Resources Password Protected Area.) Brief tips for being a successful mentor (set objectives, measure success, and demonstrate respect) and things to avoid (pulling rank, abusing information, making assumptions, and becoming too personally involved).
The Most Recent Papers and Articles Available Online about Mentoring
The author begins this article with a humorous anecdote about seeing graffiti in a bathroom stall that read, "Be a mentor and make a difference." She identifies the advances that mentoring has made in contemporary society and particularly the power that mentoring has had at the corporate level. Most great mentors, she believes, have a learning, not teaching, focus. Great mentors tune in to the other person's intellectual and emotional needs, not as experts, but as people who genuinely care about another's experience. She encourages partners to consider writing an "help wanted" ad for a mentor and in that ad describe what key qualities they are seeking. The author also provides advice about how to keep formal mentoring programs from failure and frustration by helping the mentors to understand that mentorship is a two-way conversation with benefits to the mentor; that trust is essential and may take time; and that if mentoring is being established for diversity issues, trustworthiness and genuine conversation are essential for success.
Formal mentorship programs result in several positive benefits for both mentors and partners. Through mentoring, partners acquire skills and knowledge that enable them to cope with their various responsibilities. Mentors feel a sense of renewal. They become rejuvenated and are willing to try new teaching techniques. More importantly, mentorship participants believe that the experience improved their teaching. Thus, school jurisdictions should consider implementing formal mentoring programsÑthe positive self-esteem generated through mentorship can be a powerful way to electrify their organization.
Of all the arts, animation is probably the most mentor-oriented profession. Virtually all successful animators can identify a mentor who helped them learn how to manage the challenges, techniques, and career opportunities associated with this field. Schools across the US are now benefitting from professional mentors from ACME Animation, an organization that has developed the traditional apprenticeship model into an apprentice-mentor relationship model. Originally started in Los Angeles County (California), an increasing number of ACME alumni provide mentorship via the Internet, which lends itself to viewing and examining animation techniques. This article also includes a seven-minute video demonstrating how the interaction takes place and the value it has for both animators and their students. (The full article and video is available to members of the Peer Resources Network in the "Featured Resources" section of the password protected area)
Mentoring skills are essential to career success in the sciences, but too few faculty know how to go about being a mentor. The author reports on a recent article in Science (January 27, 2006) where a survey of 150 mentors, those trained were significantly more likely to discuss expectations with their mentees and more likely to accessible and interested in their mentee's career. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have produced a mentor training program called Entering Mentoring in order to increase the number of trained mentors available to students in university settings. Their manual is available to Peer Resources Network members by emailing Rey Carr at rcarr@mentors.ca)
Today's workplace reflects at least four distinct generations (traditionalists, baby boomers, generation X, and millennials) each with its own characteristics. Such differences can have a dramatic impact on career development and retention. Mentoring is proposed by the author as a way to bridge the generation gaps. She identifies the generational barriers (divergent values about loyalty, different definitions of career success, and ideas about work/life balance), details how to flex a traditional mentoring paradigm to meet the needs of different generations, and provides five specific strategies to promote mentoring relationships in the modern workplace.
There are 7.3 million children in the US with a parent in prison or under state or federal supervision, and as many as 70 percent of these children will also find themselves incarcerated during their lifetime. This booklet describes a collaborative mentoring program to (1) support the involvement of faith-based congregations from the youngsters' own neighborhoods; (2) promote strong personal relationships between youth and their mentors; and (3) manage and support mentoring matches to ensure that youth, their families and the mentors all work together. This report discusses the results of this highly successful program which has been implemented in 101 cities in 38 states. (The full report is available to Peer Resources Network members by emailing Rey Carr at rcarr@mentors.ca)
This manual contains an extensive number of training sessions on topics such as goal-setting, decision-making, mentoring relationship stages, adolescent development, middle school transitions, self-awareness, alternatives to violence, and health concerns like smoking, drug use, HIV infection, teen pregnancy and eating disorders. Each chapter includes a suggested lesson plan outline, overhead visuals, and training activities for planning and presenting the content in that chapter. Bibliographies and template documents are included. (Available to members of the Peer Resources Network by contacting rcarr@peer.ca.)
Developing talent can be maximized through mentoring, but "boomers" may be too content being stars themselves to attend to nurturing others. Mentoring requires a change in attitude towards becoming more coach-like and less star-like. Good mentors, according to the author, offer empathy, time, resist the urge to take over, ask questions rather than provide answers, engage in role plays, voice their expectations and assumptions, view the partner as a whole person rather than just an employee or worker, and recognize that benefits that accrue to themselves as a result of mentoring.
While women don't have to be desperate to use the Helping Women Work progam of the Minerva Foundation, the organization provides considerable support to assist women experiencing transitions. Their mentors help clients to identify and build on strengths, clarify goals, generate confidence, and build their own pathways to success. This article briefly describes some of the stories that helped move women from doubts and hopelessness to high levels of personal satisfaction and career development.
Mentors can benefit anyone at any point in their career. If formal programs are not available, there are several ways to find a mentor. Brief examples of how various successful people found their mentors are provided. Mentors can come from outside the work place, and mentoring can begin even prior to making a career commitment. However, mentoring is a two-way street, so anyone planning to find a mentor should also consider what benefit there will be to the mentor. Preparing for mentor meetings can be a way to keep a mentor attracted, but the focus, according to the author, for mentor meetings ought to be on better positioning or goals, rather than whining and complaining. In these days, the author advises, it's probably a good idea to consider having multiple mentors, so finding someone you respect in a variety of areas and encouraging them to talk about their work (everyone likes to do this) will increase the likelihood of creating an on-going mentoring relationship.
NFIB: The Voice of Small Business. [Online.] Retrieved November 17, 2005 from www.nfib.com/object/IO_25409.html
A mentor is a valuable way to shape an employee's career and mentoring can also have benefits for the mentor and the organization. But for mentoring to be successful a mentor needs certain characteristics and so does the partner. If the wrong participants are chosen and not fully committed to the process, mentoring will be a futile activity.
Having a mentor is recognized as an important predictor of career success. And while one of the roles a mentor can play is "truth-teller," it's essential for the success of the relationship to be clear about expectations and to ensure understanding about roles for both partners in the mentoring relationship. In addition, what's needed in formal mentoring may be different than the requirements in informal mentoring. For example, in formal mentoring, mutual respect maybe a key element of the success of the relationship; whereas in informal mentoring, "chemistry" might be more important. Strategies to make the most of mentoring for both the mentor and the partner are provided. (Contact Rey Carr for a copy of this article.)
Mentoring plays a crucial role in the career advancement for women in a wide-range of industries. Women are more likely than men to be involved in cross-gender mentoring, and an increasing number of women are finding other women to act as informal mentors. This is, in part, due to the fact that not only are more women seeking mentors, but more women are willing to act as mentors. Contradicting the traditional admonition that supervisors should not be considered mentors, many of the women in the author's study cited supervisors as their informal mentors. In addition, role modeling was cited as equally as important a function of mentoring as the traditional factors of career and psychosocial functions of mentoring. An unusual finding in this study was that while informal mentoring for women reduced stress, increased career satisfaction, and improved productivity, and no differences were found in promotions for women with either male or female mentors, women with female mentors reported significantly lower income than females with male mentors. The author offers several explanations for this finding. (The complete text of this study is available to Peer Resources Network members.)
The author believes that too much emphasis has been placed on planning, designing and marketing of mentoring programs and too little on the heart of mentoring: the relationship between the mentee and the mentor. Consequently, "frustrating, unfulfilling mentoring unions are a dime a dozen." Rather than spending time deciding whether a mentoring program ought to be online, competency-based, or peer-based, etc., administrators ought to be helping participants develop strategic plans for the relationship. The author provides tips for the mentors, the mentees, and the administrators.
While the title of this article overstates the case, the author provides ideas about why mentoring programs fail: too much structure, too little structure, inappropriate expectations, poor communication, and "lousy mentors." But the author also cites sources that show that companies that used mentoring improved shareholder returns, improved diversity, and increased the number of women in management positions. In actuality, this article is not about failures, but is mostly about the success and breadth of mentoring at one company: Ernst & Young.
Even with research that demonstrates that mentoring is "the single most valuable ingredient in a successful career for both men and women" pitfalls can still occur. The authors identify six key "rules" for manifesting a worthy mentoring relationship: be explicit about expectations, use formal mentors; value informal mentors; seek out expertise-based mentors; find mentors who enjoy the journey; consider multiple mentors to cover life directions, not just career growth. The authors also provide advice for mentors to to maximize the success of a match: choose someone to learn from; commit to at least an hour per month; understand limits and boundaries; support alternative viewpoints; connect the partner with other potential mentors.
Complete with a CD-ROM filled with evaluation forms and handouts, this powerful, comprehensive guide to virtually every aspect needed for successful youth-based mentoring is an exceptional document. In down-to-earth language, this newly revised and updated manual reflects the latest in quality mentoring research, policies and practices and includes more than 160 tools and templates. Designing, planning, managing, structuring and evaluating are covered in such depth that it's unlikely that anyone engaged in a youth mentoring program will need any additional resources even though it lists more than 100 references to additional resources. Unbelievably, an online version of this toolkit is available at no charge. Contact Peer Resources at info@mentors.ca for ordering information.
In an effort to help other government of Canada departments benefit from the Treasury Board's experience of mentoring students, they have published a guide that covers a number of topics such as what is mentoring, what mentors do, what makes a good mentor, how mentoring benefits the mentor, the student and the agency, and a sample mentoring agreement. As recommended by Peer Resources, the Treasury Board cautions users to customize the document to the culture of their own organization.
The author profiles the recent entrepreneur competition held by a Vancouver, BC-based venture capital organization. The winner of the $60.000 prize stated that the most valuable thing he gained from the contest was the "advice of his mentor." Similar contests are held in other places in Canada where mentors are assigned to competitors.
In New York City more than 40 percent of teachers quit within three years and nearly half leave within five years. Most teachers leave because they feel unsupported rather than underpaid. This program of matching "lead teachers" who pair-up with less experienced colleagues and share the class half-time and act as mentors for the other half. The mentor teachers also receive an additional stipend of $10,000 and attend four hours of training a month. The program is touted as being much less expensive than the traditional mentoring program and not only contributes significantly to retention but also rejuvenates the spirit of the more experienced or "lead" teachers. The article includes first-hand accounts of the dividends provided by these pairings.
Women of color report higher degrees of satisfaction with an e-mentoring program than their white counterparts, and are more likely to say that their mentor was a top motivator for staying in school and continuing studies. Retrieved October 5, 2004 from www.mentornet.net/documents/about/results/evaluation/.
The magazine editor describes her mentors: a family member, people she worked for, and people she admired. She confirms that mentoring does not need to be a conscious act and describes mentoring as a "commitment to recognize, encourage and celebrate that which makes each of us unique."
Three adult to youth mentor pairings are profiled, all sponsored by Big Brothers, Big Sisters (of Canada). Mentors describe how they dealt with the, at times, difficult behaviors of their "littles." One mentor attributed her success in dealing with these difficult situations to her own mentor when she was a teen. Information about how to become a mentor and a short section on the research support for mentoring are included.
A mentor in science provides opportunities for students to engage in research and learn how to manage (or juggle) all the components. The mentor acts as a role model, provides space for mistakes, nudges, and encourages persistence. This article identifies award winners John Janovy, Varner professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, who was honored by the American Society of Parasitologists; Ellen Vitetta, professor at the University of Texas Southwestern and recipient of the American Association of Immunologists Distinguished Mentoring Award; and R. Clinton Webb, the Greenblatt Professor of endocrinology at the Medical College of Georgia and recipient of the inaugural Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award from the American Physiology Society. Their collective wisdom boils down to three interrelated themes: 1. value the person and his or her goals; 2. spend the time and energy; 3. realize it's your job. Difficult relationships can be reduced by staying focused on the goal rather than personal flaws (Ask your student where he or she wants to be in five years rather than telling the person they're not measuring up, and you're going to fire them.) Science has changed considerably since 20 years ago. Scientists now have to be versed in compliance and regulatory issues, interact with industry, understand the legalese of patents and material transfer, departmental politics, gossip, and such, so a mentor has a responsiblity to go beyond science in working with students. (Requires a paid subscription.)
Accurate matching based on similar profiles is often considered the best way to ensure relationship success in mentoring. This paper examines the wisdom of this method, outlines two other ways to manage connecting mentors with their partners, and suggests nine types of conversations that are more important than matching for the success of mentoring. (Available to Peer Resources Network members.)
Formalizing mentoring cna maximize it's benefits, but the majority of organizations, according to a study quoted, use informal mentoring. This article profiles some of the key elements of effective mentoring and quotes a number of authorities and features some of the outcomes from a financial institution's experience with mentoring. Two additional sidebars are included: one, is adapted from Peer Resources and details the advantages of mentoring for the mentor and for the partner, and the second provides a list and description of websites that provide mentoring case studies, examples of successful programs, and other resources.
Mentoring programs have become part of organizational strategy to replace retiring managers, develop new leaders, support knowledged management, and cut turnover.
One way of working with high risk youth is engage adults through mentoring, counseling, teaching and coaching in a range of settings. This paper explores the potential of a novel and emerging approach to increasing the level and quality of adult involvement with high-risk youth through extended contact with a paid mentor-counselor. A small number of programs where this approach is being tested and refined show some promise. The paid mentor-counselor is not cur-rently in widespread use, and the potential of the strategy may not be, on the surface, clear or compelling. This paper describes in a general way how paid counselors work in practice, and argues that they effectively complement paid professionals and unpaid volunteers who work with young people. It presents a rationale for the paid mentor-counselor, discusses how such pro-grams can be implemented and suggests why they should attract the interest of policy-makers and funders.
While the US Department of Education is taken to task in this report for its less than stellar job of monitoring, auditing, and evaluating a variety of mentoring grants awarded under the No Child Left Behind Act, the report also emphasizes some key findings that appear to contribute to the successful delivery of mentoring programs for youth. In addition the report describes the importance of experienced mentoring programs acting as mentors for new mentor program service providers especially through providing comprehensive descriptions of how they deal with a variety of issues such as recruiting and retaining mentors, delivering mentoring services, and assessing outcomes. The full report is available at: www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-581.
Several companies that use younger employees to mentor senior exectuvies are breifly profiled. Such mentoring leads to valuable insights, increased performance, and reducing the gap between the generations. Four tips are presented to make reverse mentoring work: mutuality, clear objectives, respectful interaction, and acceptance of difference.
In Prince George's County, Maryland., last year, nearly 22 percent of the county's 12,229 ninth-graders had to repeat their freshman year. By creating specialized academies, providing mentors and offering study-skills classes, schools in the metro Washington, D.C., area are redoubling their efforts to help students make it through this watershed year. Article available online at: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19034-2004May11.html (Registration is free and may be required.)
The mid- to late 1980s saw the number of mentoring programs grow as the need for caring relationships between at-risk youth and adults became more obvious, and the shortcomings of some traditional programs and services for young people became more apparent. This synthesis examines the role that mentoring plays in helping youth develop a broad array of strengths and capacities in the following four areas of child well-being: education and cognitive attainment; health and safety; social and emotional wellbeing; and self-sufficiency. Program evaluations in this report all use a rigorous experimental methodology to test for the impact of program participation on youth outcomes.
The authors attempt to make the case that mentoring is poorly supported by research and that mentoring programs do more harm than good when not supported by research. While the authors present an interesting idea, their article fails to account for or mention research that actually contradicts their viewpoint. (Requires a paid subscription.)
A program created by the Hollywood Entertainment Museum provides mentors for teens on probation who are interested in various aspects of the entertainment business. The work in this after-school program counts towards high school graduation while students learn about show business. Participants are called interns and either graduate directly from the the program or transition back to their own high schools.
Originally designed as a study of diversity and mentoring in corporate law departments and the law firms that work with them, this year-long study yields practical advice and ideas for all mentors, mentees, and organizations. The authors examined five questions: (1) How lawyers build successful cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships; (2) How lawyers define reasonable expectations for cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships; (3) How lawyers build trust in cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships to promote open communication; (4) How lawyers develop the capability and comfort to discuss diversity issues in cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships; and (5) How lawyers are motivated to initiate cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships. The findings in this study, conducted by two top mentoring experts, provide considerable guidance for other mentoring venues and address issues about starting, supporting, and sustaining cross-gender and cross-race mentoring relationships. The authors found a number of surprising, yet consistent results and have included checklists and guides to help others benefit from the research. Access to the full article is available to Peer Resources Network members in the password protected area.
The author provides several examples of mentoring relationships in top BC companies and illustrates how such relationships were of benefit to both the mentor and the partner. The author found that mentoring is recognized in the business community "as a natural offshoot of a healthy corporate culture" and that "companies with such programs tend to attract and retain good employees and are usually listed amongst the best places to work."
This paper supports the idea that a combination of informal and formal mentoring will provide the most effective impact for mentoring in an organization. The author details the key steps to stimulate informal mentoring by establishing a climate within which it can thrive. Complete paper available for download to Peer Resources Network members.
A brief description of a grant provided to the University of Washington from the Carnegie Corporation that will include mentoring master's-degree graduates in teaching during their first two years on the job in order to increase retention.
Five top leaders talk about their mentors and what they learned from them. Warren Bennis tells how his mentor helped him learn how to identify "the handful of people who make all the difference in your life." Tim Murphy (football coach at Harvard) believe his mentors taught him to be a mentor "in terms of how you live your life." Betsy Bernard, President of AT&T learned from her mentors that "a great leader truly believes that personal development is a never-ending journey. If you can help people embrace and love continuous development, then you are really making a difference in their lives and careers." Dee Hock, founder of VISA, believes that mentoring is "little more than one of those management popularities so beloved by consultants." He portrays mentoring as demeaning and has the stench of injustice and hypocrisy because a select few are chosen and attended to, when all should be so engaged.
This edited booklet contains six articles: (1) The practice, quality and cost of mentoring; (2) Mentoring adolescents: What have we learned? (3) Assessing the effectiveness of mentoring programs; (4) The cost of mentoring; (5) Mentoring matters: A national survey of adults mentoring young people; and (6) Mentoring in 1998: Four models for the 21st century.
This paper answers the question of why some adult-youth mentoring relationships do well while others lose momentum. The key to success is the expectation of the mentor and the focus of the mentor on building the relationship (instead of reforming the youth, etc.). Based on research the author details why it isn't always easy to build friendly relationships and even mentors with good instincts can stumble or be blocked by difficulties. This guide describes ten important features of successful mentor attitudes and styles and describes how each one can be put into practice.
- This article provides an overview of the arguments and research regarding same-race versus cross-race matching in youth to adult mentoring programs. In addition to examining the issues, the author provides practical guidance for how to use the findings within individual mentoring programs. The author believes that all mentors could probably benefit from training in cultural understanding and she provides information about conducting a training along with suggested activities.
Every mentoring program struggles with recruiting safe, responsible adults to work with youth. Based on effective practices used by volunteer-based organizations and on research findings about mentoring, the author describes recruitment strategies that can be adapted to meet the unique aspects of individual youth mentoring programs. For example, by knowing that a decision to volunteer is a two-step process and organization can use this process to develop their recruiting strategy. The booklet describes how to build a specific mentor recruitment plan, particularily using college students and older adults. Checklists and worksheets are included as well as sample forms and useful readings.
Using the experience of the director of economic development as an example, peer mentoring is discussed and its benefits are outlined. Typically business people can rely on several peer mentors. Often these mentors are not part of a formal mentoring program and peer mentoring can easily evolve into a lasting friendship. The focus of peer mentoring can be on career development, leadership succession, becoming more objective about decision making, and taking a larger perspective. Persons interviewed for this article believed that naturally occuring mentoring relationships provide stronger connections than those typically associated with formal mentoring programs where people are assigned to each other. Openness to advice was described as a key to the success of peer mentoring. Mentored individuals were described as more empowered, engaged, knowledgeable, and dedicated.
The author works with Next Generation Economy that has created a mentoring program for executives who have started or run organizations. The article focuses on how a mentor differs from a coach or manager who is often concerned with outcomes, performance or minimizing failure. Instead a mentor can be challenging and can handle a partner failing in an endeavor. However, the mentor is often there to help the partner make a "soft landing" and learn from the mistake or experience the pain.
Descriptions of local business leaders and their mentorship connections with students in local area schools. The successful impact of the relationships on the students and mentors includes student academic improvement, improved self-esteem and employee morale growth. Factors that contributed to the success of the program include; a program overseer, support from multiple levels (including support from co-workers who may have to cover while a mentor is meeting with a student), and clear guidelines regarding time and goals.
The author believes that counseling is helping employees deal with unexpected emotions, tears and outright anger. He warns that dealing with these emotions is not part of a mentor's job; a mentor might be placing themselves and the company at risk if they try to deal with highly charged emotional issues. If a mentor encounters such issues they should check what it is the other person wants by bringing it to the attention of the mentor. The mentor also needs to be willing to refer to other resources (EAP, professional counsellor, etc.)
The author provides specific advice to the partners (proteges) in a mentoring relationship that they will benefit most if they lead the pairing. The partner is really in charge of determining the outcome and the author provides guidance as to the different ways a variety of outcomes can be maximized. (This article is also available through Perrone-Ambrose Mentors Plus Leaders' Update - www.perrone-ambrose.com). It can be downloaded here in a pdf format.
Having mentor circles, where you surround yourself with mentors can propel your career. Brief descriptions of organizations that help to achieve this approach are profiled.
The author quotes various individuals who have found value in having mentor and provides some ideas about mentoring eitquette.
The old model of using mentoring for career advancement is thrown out in favor of a highly successful system of matching mentors and partners based on skills and learning mastery.
In a recent ranking of the top 100 U.S. organizations that excel in human capital development, seventy-seven per cent of the companies in the top 100 have formal mentoring programs. Not surprising when considering that mentoring significantly contributes to career development, retention and leadership succession. The rankings were based on a number of qualitative and quantitative measures and the top 100 were selected out of an initial potential pool of 155,000 applications. Most of the questions focused on company training and development activities and rankings were based on a point system created by the editorial staff at the magazine.
This study was conducted at the request of The National Mentoring Partnership with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. This report from the study of 722 mentoring programs describes the characteristics of the programs, their mentors and the youth they serve. The authors conclude that although one-on-one mentoring has shown effectiveness, site-based or group mentoring programsÑcan also be effective in fostering positive relationships between youth and volunteer mentors and may have advantages such as a lessened need for screening and/or training standards. Group mentoring also deals with insufficient numbers of volunteers without sacrificing quality.
The author summarizes the findings of 10 reports that focused on mentoring. Among the findings that are clearly documented by the reports are (1) participating in mentoring programs leads to important and observable changes in both attitudes and behaviours of youth at-risk; (2) there are key practices that characterize effective mentoring relationships; (3) certain program structures and supports are essential to maximize best practices among mentors (with matching being the least critical element); and (4) there are enough adults with the time and resources to assist as mentors with youth at-risk. The author makes suggestions for what lies ahead and then provides actual summaries of each of the ten reports this synthesis is based upon.
A comprehensive set of guidelines covering all aspects of mentoring for women. The guidelines include topics such as: defining mentoring roles, listing benefits for the mentor, the partner, and the organization, the rationale for why women need mentors and a list of principles for effective mentor program. Principles include commitment, needs assessment, expected outcomes, current resources, a strong degree of formality, open communication, confidentiality, clear objectives and planning, clarified mentor role and special qualities required, the importance of training, involvement of managers or supervisors, agreements, rewards, coordination and evaluation. Particular difficulties for women are discussed such as being mentored by men, uneven power alignments, interference with normal work, and elitism and jealousy. The guidelines also cover how to start a program if one is not currently operating, what to look for in seeking a mentor and where to find a suitable mentor and how to manage a mentoring relationship. A key feature of this paper are brief testimonials from women in public and private employment describing their mentor experiences, the qualities they believe are important in a mentor, how to locate a mentor, pitfalls, and advice to others seeking mentors.
Building helping relationships is a critical rung on the career development ladder for new employees. Most organizations use an orientation program to help with the process of integrating personally and professionally into the organization. Increasingly, organizations are using the benefits of mentoring as a part of the orientation process. Many state Extension Services have incorporated mentoring relationships into traditional training and development programs because mentoring objectives can be effectively accomplished in a relatively short period of time.
This document was originally designed as a pamphlet to educate parents about what to expect from mentoring, how to support the mentoring relationship, and how to deal with potential conflicts between parenting practices and mentoring interactions.
