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Mentoring-Tutoring Research

“THE ROLE OF RISK” A 2013 STUDY FROM WASHINGTON STATE MENTORS
https://www.mdrc.org/publication/role-risk
From MENTOR newsletter: "This report presents results from the first large-scale evaluation to examine how the levels and types of risk youth face may influence their mentoring relationships and the benefits they derive from mentoring programs. The study looked closely at the backgrounds of participating youth and their mentors, the mentoring relationships that formed, the program supports that were offered, and the benefits youth received — and assessed how these varied for youth with differing “profiles” of risk.

BENCHMARKS: STARTING, OPERATING A MENTOR PROGRAM
https://aymn.org.au/benchmarks/
From the web site: "The Australian Youth Mentoring Benchmarks were created in 2000 to provide a standard for all mentoring programs in order to have a strong, successful and sustainable program. The Australian Youth Mentoring Network encourages all mentoring programs to achieve these standards through the sharing of resources, professional development and collegial networking. The Benchmarks were reviewed in 2007 and again in 2012."  Visit the web site and incorporate these into your own organizational development.

CENTER FOR EVIDENCE BASED MENTORING
https://www.mentoring.org/resource-library/
From the web site: "he Center is dedicated to creating the open and efficient exchange of research and ideas. In doing so, we seek to advance the production, dissemination, and uptake of evidence-based practice in ways that improve the effectiveness of practice and, ultimately, create stronger, more enduring mentor-mentee relationships."

CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY MENTORING RESEARCH - PORTLAND STATE U.
https://www.pdx.edu/youth-mentoring/
From the web site: "The PSU Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research (CIMR) was created in 2010 to advance the field of mentoring, nationally and internationally, through innovative and rigorous research, education and knowledge sharing, and partnerships with organizations providing services."  Among its programs is a Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring http://www.pdx.edu/youth-mentoring/ 

CITIZEN SCHOOLS MENTORING PROGRAM - ARTICLE
https://www.edutopia.org/citizen-schools-after-school-program
This link points to an article about the Citizen Schools after school mentoring program. This is an excellent example of the involvement of business volunteers and effective support by program staff. Watch the video, too. http://www.edutopia.org/citizen-schools-after-school-program-video 

CHALLENGES OF BRINGING BIG NEW TUTORING PROGRAMS TO AMERICA'S CLASSROOMS - 2022 ARTICLE
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/3/25/22995221/tutoring-pandemic-academic-recovery-recruiting-training-challenges#Echobox=1648208087
In the early 2000s the "No Child Left Behind" movement saw tutoring as one strategy, but had a difficult time making it work.  In 2022 tutoring once again is seen as a strategy, and once again, it is difficult making it work.  Read this article from Chalkbeat, titled "Hiccups and hard lessons: What it takes to bring big new tutoring programs to America's classrooms."

COALITION FOR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
https://www.communityschools.org/
From the web site: "The Coalition for Community Schools, housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership, is an alliance of national, state and local organizations in education K-16, youth development, community planning and development, family support, health and human services, government and philanthropy as well as national, state and local community school networks. Community schools are both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. There are a number of national models and local community school initiatives that share a common set of principles: fostering strong partnerships, sharing accountability for results, setting high expectations, building on the community’s strengths, and embracing diversity and innovative solutions."

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, URBAN INITIATIVE, UCHICAGO
https://voices.uchicago.edu/coed/
From the web site: "The Committee sponsors an ongoing workshop on Education; administers training grants in educational research; and fosters connections among education-related programs in existing departments and schools, including SSA’s Community Schools Program, the Urban Teacher Education Program, and courses in educational psychology, educational sociology, economics of education, social work, and educational policy."

CONSUMER GUIDE TO MENTORING - 1993 PERSPECTIVE
https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/mentor.html
This web page was created in 1993 and is now an archive. However, reading it now can help leaders, volunteers and donors gain a perspective of how mentoring was viewed almost 20 years ago. Some of the same challenges that existed then are still with us today.

CREATING A NETWORK OF AFTERSCHOOL ED PROGRAMS
http://pase-about.s3.amazonaws.com/PASEConceptPaper.pdf
This paper makes a case for building a network of youth programs throughout large city and provides ideas for how this might happen.

DAVID DUBOIS, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH, UIC SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH - FOCUSES ON MENTORING
https://publichealth.uic.edu/profiles/david-dubois/
Dr. DuBois is one of the leading researchers on mentoring in the USA. He is the lead co-editor of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring and co-author of After-School Centers and Youth Development: Case Studies of Success and Failure. He hosts a mentoring list-serve connecting researchers and practitioners. This link points to his bio. 

EMPLOYEE SKILL IMPROVEMENTS RESULTING FROM VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCES - 2016 RESEARCH
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00495/full
This article is titled "Widely Assumed but Thinly Tested: Do Employee Volunteers' Self-Reported Skill Improvements Reflect the Nature of Their Volunteering Experiences?"  It investigates an important question to the volunteer tutoring and mentoring field. What skills and benefits do the volunteers take back to the workplace? Read the report. More research like this still needs to be done.

EVALUATION OF MOST (MAKING THE MOST OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME) INITIATIVE
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED451957
This Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago report summarizes the evaluation of the first phase (1995-1998) of the Making the Most of Out-of-School Time (MOST) Initiative of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds.

GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE YOUTH MENTORING - NEW ZEALAND – PDF
https://www.youthmentoring.org.nz/content/docs/GYM.1.pdf
This handbook has loads of useful information with helpful graphics to illustrate concepts. 

HELPING THE LESS-ADVANTAGED TO SUCCEED - MOBILITY
https://economicmobilitycorp.org/publications/
From the web site: "The Economic Mobility Corporation (Mobility) Mobility is guided by the belief that every individual deserves access to economic opportunity. We identify, develop and evaluate promising strategies that promote economic mobility by enabling less advantaged adults and youth to acquire the education, skills and networks needed to advance in the labor market.” The Publications section of this library includes an archive of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) research.

ILLINOIS DCFS - PREVENTION AND CHILD ABUSE RESOURCES
https://www2.illinois.gov/dcfs/Pages/default.aspx
On this web site you will find timely information about Child Protection, Foster Care, Adoption, Day Care licensing and other services provided by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS). 

INNOVATIONS IN SCHOOL BASED MENTORING
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1754730X.2013.832009
This report by Samuel D. McQuillina, John D. Terry, Gerald G. Strait & Bradley H. Smith offers some ideas for making school based mentoring strategies more effective. You can download the full report, or just read the abstract

INVESTIGATING MENTOR COMMITMENT IN YOUTH MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED PROGRAM PRACTICES
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.22409
This is one of several research articles in this issue of the Journal of Community Psychology.   The abstract describes the research process as "Using data from 537 mentors representing 55 mentoring programs, this study examined a theoretical path model in which mentor perceptions of program practices, specifically setting expectations, prematch mentor training, and matching based on mentor preferences, predict mentor satisfaction, investment, perceptions of available alternatives, and ultimately, relationship commitment."  PDF available. 

LEARNING AND AFTERSCHOOL-KAREN PITTMAN INTERVIEW
http://blog.learninginafterschool.org/2012/01/extended-learning-time-and-more.html
This article is an interview with Karen Pittman, President of the Forum for Youth Investment. It's one of a number of articles about "learning and after school" issues.

MENTOR CONSULTING GROUP - ASK DR. MENTOR
http://www.mentorconsultinggroup.com/ask.html
Each month Dr. Susan Weinberger, known to her many clients simply as "Dr. Mentor," takes time to answer some of the questions sent in by program staff and mentoring professionals around the world. Visit the web site and build your mentoring organization with Dr. Mentor's help.

MENTORING AND YOUNG PEOPLE - UK ARTICLE
https://infed.org/mentoring-and-young-people/
From the web site: "There has been a mushrooming of youth mentoring projects across the UK. Yet  relatively little is known in the UK about the background to the idea and the  principles underlying mentoring initiatives. Kate Philip investigates."

MENTORING FOR BLACK MALE YOUTH: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH (2017)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-017-0074-z
This literature review was conducted to compile all available research evidence about mentoring for Black boys.  There are links to many publications. 

MENTORING AS PART OF LARGER STRATEGY - P/PV RESEARCH
https://www.issuelab.org/resource/mentoring-policy-and-politics.html
In December 2007 Public/Private Ventures issued a Policy Brief, titled "Mentoring, Policy and Politics", written by Gary Walker. The final sentence of this report, in a section titled “Future Directions”, states “Infiltration, not consolidation, is where mentoring's greatest usefulness lies in the years ahead.”  Note: Public/Private Ventures went out of business in 2012 but this message still has meaning. P/PV research is still available via IssueLab.

See Tutor/Mentor Connection comment on this article. https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2020/05/ive-led-this-effort-since-1993-im.html

MENTORING DECREASES YOUTH VIOLENCE - NEW RESEARCH (2012)
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2012/10/04/in-chicago-proof-positive-that-mentoring-decreases-youth-violence
This article refers to a "large social science research study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, in partnership with Chicago Public Schools and local nonprofits, which found that counseling and mentoring actually work." Read more. Follow the links to the research.

MENTORING PROGRAMS AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
https://www.childtrends.org/?publications=mentoring-programs-and-youth-development-a-synthesis
This is a 2002 ChildTrends report by Susan Jekielek, M.A., Kristin A. Moore, Ph.D., and Elizabeth C. Hair, Ph.D., funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. It examines the role that mentoring plays in helping youth develop a broad array of strengths and capacities in the following three domains of child well-being: education and cognitive attainment; health and safety; and social and emotional well-being.

MENTORING RESOURCES ON UCLA CENTER WEB SITE
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/mentoring.htm
The UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools seeks to create a system wide system of school and community supports to help young people succeed in school Their web site offers an extensive library of ideas that schools and community groups throughout the world can use.

MENTORSHIP ARTICLE ON WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentorship
Wikipedia articles such as this provide an extensive range of information about topics such as mentoring. Add to your resource list. 

PERSPECTIVES OF PROFESSIONAL MENTORS
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10566-014-9261-2
This research talks about the role of Full-time “professional” mentors in highly structured programs that work with youth facing significant risks.  Staff who support volunteers in organized programs require some of the same skills.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE VENTURES RESEARCH ARCHIVE ON ISSUE LAB
click here
From the web site: "After almost 35 years Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) has ceased operations. The organization leaves behind an incredible legacy of knowledge, including hundreds of research reports, case studies and evaluations about how best to improve programs and outcomes for children, youth and families. We are fortunate that P/PV has decided to archive its publications collection with the Foundation Center's IssueLab so that practitioners can benefit from this knowledge for years to come."

REPORT ON THE STATE OF NY MENTORING - DEC 2020 (PDF)
click here
This report summarizes survey findings of Mentor NY, conducted during middle of 2020 Covid19 pandemic. 

RESILIENT LATINO YOUTH: IN THEIR OWN WORDS - 2015 RESEARCH
https://issuu.com/nclr/docs/resilientlatinoyouth_web
From the web site: "This report uses the concept of resilience to examine how a group of second-generation Latino youth have been able to cope with adversity and excel while growing up in extremely challenging circumstances."

RESILIENT LEADERS — IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADER DEVELOPMENT
https://gfbertini.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/resilient-leaders-implications-for-leader-development/
An understanding of resilience, and how it develops in some people can provide insight and ideas for how  youth tutoring/mentoring programs might try to build these characteristics in youth they mentor.

SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS - 2008 ARTICLE
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/08/02/secrets-successful-afterschool-programs
From Harvard Graduate School of Education web site: "The United States is engaged in an ongoing, public discussion about how to best expand afterschool time and opportunities for children and youth, to support their learning and development across the day, throughout the year, and from kindergarten through high school. Debate continues about the range of academic, social, and other types of knowledge and skills that young people will need to succeed as workers, citizens, and family and community members in a global world. To build the knowledge base, and to support efforts to improve quality in this field, the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has developed and maintains an accessible national database of evaluations of hundreds of afterschool programs. In 2008, HFRP issued a review of these studies to address two fundamental questions: Does participation in after school programs make a difference, and if so, what conditions appear to be necessary to achieve positive results?"  Visit site and learn more.

START TO FINISH COALITION - A FISCAL SCAN OF ILLINOIS PUBLIC INVESTMENTS IN CHILDREN AND YOUTH, AGES 8-25.
https://www.childrenshomeandaid.org/thecenter/youthbudget/
From the web site: " The fiscal scan  —  conducted as part of a collaborative effort including Children’s Home + Aid, the Federation for Community Schools, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and United Way of Illinois  —  allows us to see how Illinois’ funds are currently invested in youth ages 8–25."

THE EFFORT EFFECT - INFLUENCING STUDENT MOTIVATION
https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-effort-effect
From the web site: "Through more than three decades of systematic research, Stanford University researcher Carol Dweck has been figuring out answers to why some people achieve their potential while equally talented others don’t—why some become Muhammad Ali and others Mike Tyson. The key, she found, isn’t ability; it’s whether you look at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something that can be developed."  Read the full article and consider how you can apply this thinking as a tutor/mentor, teacher, parent, etc.

THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN - POLICY BRIEFS
https://futureofchildren.princeton.edu/publications
From the web site: "The The Future of Children is a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. Our mission is to translate the best social science research about children and youth into information that is useful to policymakers, practitioners, grant-makers, advocates, the media, and students of public policy. We publish one journal and policy brief each year, in addition to other projects. The policy topics we cover range widely – from education to health to families – with children as the unifying element. Our diverse senior editorial team represents two institutions and multiple disciplines."

THE MENTORING EFFECT: YOUNG PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVES ON OUTCOMES AND AVAILABILITY
https://www.mentoring.org/resource/the-mentoring-effect/
This report was commissioned by MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership with support from AT&T and written by Civic Enterprises with Hart Research. It is describe this way: "The Mentoring Effect: Young People's Perspectives on the Outcomes and Availability of Mentoring, the first-ever nationally representative survey of young people on the topic of mentoring, examines the mentoring effect on youth, their aspirations and achievements and the community around them. The report also highlights a substantial mentoring gap that exists in America, especially for at-risk youth: one in three young people will reach adulthood without having a mentor."

THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS: HOW AND WHY AMERICAN ADULTS STEP UP TO MENTOR THE NATION’S YOUTH
https://www.mentoring.org/resource/the-power-of-relationships/
From the web site: "The Power of Relationships: How and Why American Adults Step Up to Mentor the Nation’s Youth  is the most comprehensive picture of what adults think about mentoring kids who are not their own. This 2018 report is a follow-up to MENTOR’s 2014 report, The Mentoring Effect, which is the most comprehensive look at young people’s views on and engagement with mentoring.

THE RELATIONSHIP GAP - 2017 RESEARCH BY SEARCH INSTITUTE
https://blog.searchinstitute.org/relationship-gap-important
From the web site: "The Search Institute has identified five key elements that are vital in a developmental relationship for youth--expressing care, challenging growth, providing support, sharing power and expanding possibilities and shows that it is often the adult who takes the lead in these actions and expresses them most strongly, intentionally, and consistently." It's research shows that more than 30% have only one or two of these supports and 22% have none.

THEORY OF CHANGE WEB SITE
https://www.theoryofchange.org/
From the web site:  "This website is the definitive resource for everything related to Theory of Change. It is also a community forum, for discussion and posting, and we look forward to the robustness of the material increasing with contributions from members all over the world."

"TUTORING WORKS, IF DONE WELL" - ARTICLE ABOUT TENNESSEE SCHOOL-BASED TUTORING
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2022/0215/Students-need-help-catching-up.-Tennessee-tries-tutoring
This 2022 article about tutoring in the Christian Science Monitor describes a Tennessee tutoring strategy funded by the state and reaching nearly 150,000 students. It discusses challenges, costs, and sustainability. 

US DOE MENTORING RESOURCE CENTER
https://nationalmentoringresourcecenter.org/
From the Department of Education National Mentoring Resource Center web site: "Our goal is to improve the quality and effectiveness of youth mentoring across the country through increased use of evidence-based practices and sharing practitioner innovations."  If you are involved in youth mentoring this web site should be in your resource tool kit.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS FOR TEENS
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moment-youth/201107/beyond-the-classroom
If you are launching a new school based, or non-school, tutor/mentor program for teens this article in Psychology Today describes some ideal features that a program should offer.  If you already have a program, ask "do we provide these types of support?" and if you're planning a new program ask "How do we build these supports into our logic model and program design?"    If you're a donor, ask how you can proactively fund programs with these elements. 

WHAT WORKS WISCONSIN – EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS AND RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/whatworkswisconsin/research-to-pratice-briefs/
From the web site: "What Works, Wisconsin is a project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Human Ecology and the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Family Living Programs. Initiated in 2004, the What Works project focuses on distilling the latest scientific knowledge on effective policies, practices, and programs, including “evidence-based programs,” for youth and their families, schools, and communities. In addition to disseminating this information to practitioners and policymakers, the What Works staff provide technical assistance on program design, improvement and evaluation. Through publications, presentations, workshops and individualized technical assistance, the What Works team provides practitioners and policymakers with the tools to develop effective programs and evaluate and improve existing programming based on state-of-the-art knowledge of what makes programs effective."

YES, YOU CAN - GUIDE TO STARTING YOUTH MENTORING PROGRAM
https://web.archive.org/web/20170709043558/https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/YesYouCan/index.html
This resource, "Yes, You Can: A Guide for Establishing Mentoring Programs to Prepare Youth for College--October 1998"  is now an archive. However, the ideas for building and sustaining a volunteer-based youth mentoring program are as relevant today as they were in 1998. 

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC comment:  Only the public commitment to fund and provide leadership on a continuous basis is missing.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION
https://extension.umn.edu/working-youth/center-youth-development
From the site; "The backbone of positive youth development programs is research. The Extension Center for Youth Development conducts and shares out-of-school time research and evaluation with policy makers, stakeholders, program leaders, youth work practitioners, decision makers and researchers to address important issues related to the field of youth development."

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS - HISTORY
https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2557/Youth-Development-Programs.html
From the web site: "Youth development programs seek to improve the lives of children and adolescents by meeting their basic physical, developmental, and social needs and by helping them to build the competencies needed to become successful adults. Examples of youth development programs include community service, mentoring programs, and neighborhood youth centers."  This web site provides historical perspectives, and references to other reading and research that would be valuable to leaders and funders. 

YOUTH MENTORING: BRIDGING SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE - 2006 PDF
http://www.rhodeslab.org/files/dubois.pdf
This link points to a  JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY article titled INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: YOUTHMENTORING: BRIDGING SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE, written by David L. DuBois, University of Illinois at Chicago and Jean E. Rhodes, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

YOUTH PROGRAMS AND NON PROFIT SUPPORT RESOURCES HOSTED BY EDUCATION NORTHWEST
https://educationnorthwest.org/areas-of-work/youth-community
From the web site: "The Institute for Youth Success at Education Northwest is a full-service, innovative regional center to support best practices at youth serving organizations.  For nonprofits and community-based organizations serving youth, we provide professional development and a wide range of capacity-building support through the Institute for Youth Success at Education Northwest. Services include training and technical assistance, research, and consultation for mentoring, tutoring, and out-of-school time programs."

 
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