Sunday, May 19, 2019
Mentoring Programs for At-Risk Youth
The word mentor derives its get-go from a character in Homers epic poem The Odyssey. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca, went to fight in the Trojan War, he en institutionalizeed the c are of his Kingdom to Mentor. Mentor served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseuss son, Telemachus.1In our monastic order today, mentors gener on the wholey are volunteers who are committed to helping students or jejuneness identified as at-risk and/or as a potential dropout get back on trackacademically, socially, mentally and physically.The specific roles of mentors are multifaceted and varied. Mentors are big brothers/sisters, role models, friends and confidantes. Their goal is to make a connection and then, using that connection, set about a positive message to their mentee. Mentors build self-esteem, motivate and help young persons set goals and work toward accomplishing those goals. at that place is little doubt of the importance of mentoring programmes and the benefits they yield. Studies of e xisting programs indicate that youth who participate in mentoring relationships guard break out attendance and attitude toward school less drug and alcohol use improved social attitudes and relationships much trusting relationships and better communication with their parents and a better chance of going on to higher education.2Unfortunately, all those who could be benefiting from having a mentor are not. According to Mentoring in America 2005 A Snapshot of the menstruation State of Mentoring, Of the 17.6 million young people who could especially benefit from having a mentor, only 2.5 million were in formal, one-on-one mentoring relationships. 3In the state of computed tomography, over 160,000 childrenor 25 % of computerized tomographys youthare in life situations that place them at risk for personal and academic failure.4These situations include poverty, unequal early childhood experiences and preparation for school, family drug use, violence, involvement in the criminal justi ce outline and inadequacy of access to needed social and mental health services.Government, community and civic groups and individuals are trying to channelise that trying to make a difference. Since 1989, The Governors streak alliance has worked with the State of conjoinicut, computerized tomographys corporate and caper communities and other public, private and community organizations to provide the leadership and resources to assist 387 schools, 249 community organizations and 93 businesses in efforts to progress the children of the state safe, successful and drug-free.5This is being accomplished, in part, through the following programs.The Connecticut Mentoring PartnershipCreated in 1977, The Connecticut Mentoring Partnership (CMP) challenges business leaders to help create a statewide mentoring initiative as a saloon strategy to protect youth from drug use, school failure and other related problems.The program provides leadership, resources and training to schools, busi nesses, community and faith-based organizations throughout the state in an effort to increase mentoring partnerships and promote safe, quality mentoring programs.The Partnership also works toRaise public awareness CMP has partnerships with NBC30, CBS Radio, Buckley Radio and others, a statewide media campaign recruits mentors during issue Mentoring Month in January. Raising awareness of the importance of mentoring is also done year-round. A toll-free do, 1-877-CT-MENTOR, provides information on mentoring and ties into a statewide database of mentoring programs.Recruit and refer mentors Business and community groups are assisted in recruiting their workforce or members to serve as mentors.Develop impertinently mentoring resources, including public and private funding prophesy and promote public policies and legislation that strengthen mentoring and collect and track data.Activities and services of the CMP include The Mentoring Training lend technical assistance and support on Co nnecticut Quality Standards for mentoring programs and assistance on program normal resources and mentor recruitment, screening, training and program design Regional Mentoring Networks for program providers mentor recruitment and a toll-free Mentor Referral Line annual mentoring showcase conference and workshops The Mentoring Corporate Honor Roll and Corporate Mentoring orotund Table that promotes, supports and recognizes corporate involvement and program evaluation tools and resources.Since 1997, CMP has created over 200 new programs and to a greater extent than 3,000 new mentoring relationships. Since 2001, 70 schools and businesses have joined the Partnerships School Business Mentoring Alliance and 90 companies have been recognized through the 2005 Mentoring Corporate Honor Roll.6The Urban Mentoring InitiativeThe Urban Mentoring Imitative (UMI) was created in 2005 in partnership with the state of Connecticut. Over the next two years2006-2007the CMP will initiate a mentoring ex pansion effort in Hartford, Waterbury, Norwich, Bridgeport, New Haven, New Britain and Windham.During that time, The UMI will be responsible for attempting to significantly increase the number of mentors for at-risk children in those communities. This will be done by increasing the capacity of existing mentoring programs to reach to a greater extent children developing new mentoring programs and models to address existing gaps and identifying and accessing additional resources.The two-year funding appropriated by the State legislative body will be matched by corporate and private sector monies secured by The Governors Prevention Partnership. throw away weft Mentoring ProgramProject Choice Mentoring Program (PCMP) is dedicated to helping the youth of the urban center of Hartford. Its mission is to empower committed delinquent youth to make positive life choices that will alter them to maximize their personal potential and be successful in their community.The program provides cari ng mentors who are fully trained and supported by the professional staff of Project Choice and Nutmeg with child(p) Brothers Big Sisters, according to Eddie Perez, Mayor of Hartford, CT. Project Choice mentors strive to be a positive support system to the youth as well as to the family by forming a relationship based on trust and respect. This allows Project Choice mentors to advocate for the youth in academic, community and family settings while opening doors of opportunity that differently would not be available to them.7Project Choice started as an idea of David Norman in August 2001 at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS). Norman took on the challenge of fitting a positive role model for one in need youth. Over time, the youngster responded to Normans efforts with improved behavior, causing others to notice the change. As a result, the idea of role model became more widely accepted and the term was gradually changed to mentor. This acceptance allowed Norman and ot hers to work with more youth at the CJTS facility and Project Choice was born.Project Choice works with Connecticuts Juvenile judge and at-risk youth between the ages of 11 and 21. The program operates on a buy-in premise. It is completely youth-driven, ensuring that the youth have the natural selection to buy-in (or participate). No participant is forced, mandated or court ordered to be part of the mentoring process.In 2003, Project Choice partnered with Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters (NBBBS). Today, PCMP also is partnered with Boys Girls Clubs of America and together with NBBBS, work under the umbrella of Connecticuts Department of Children and Families, Bureau of Adolescent and Transitional Services. Project Choice also is networked with the One-on-One Mentoring Program.Project Choice again expanded its resources by establishing a formal collaboration with Project Connect. Project Connect specializes in presenting alternative choices to youth and reinforcing the belief that p ositive behavior yields positive rewards.Youth Fair recover, Inc.This matter project is funded by the Department of Labor. Established on a case-management basis, this Connecticut program targets individuals between the ages of 14 and 25.Focus is on computer, job and life skills training tutoring, which is conducted four times a week and open mentoring. There are no specific project guidelines for the mentoring program, which currently operates on an as-needed basis. Set up at heart a peer-to-peer mentor atmosphere, Yale University students occasionally provide assistance.Other services offered by Youth Fair Chance include day care, summer employment assistance, support groups, high school diploma equivalency classes and recreational activities. quad youth program areas are presently being developed that will focus on gender-specific prevention programs for female youth.During the 2005-2006 academic school year a follow-up evaluation of the school-based mentoring program was co nducted by the Connecticut Mentoring Partnership. One hundred and ninety mentored youth from seven school systems were evaluated.8The evaluation was viewed as a take flight or exploratory study that would serve as a stepping stone for future evaluations and mentoring research. Overall, the results were positive. The states mentoring programs seem to be reaching those individuals who are somewhat academically at-risk and are subsequently able to brook or improve their academic performance during the course of a mentoring relationship. Footnotes1Reh, F. John. Mentors and Mentoring What Is a Mentor? Retrieved December 1, 2006, from http//management.about.com/cs/people/a/mentoring.htm.2Mentoring in America 2005 A Snapshot of the Current State of Mentoring. Results of a diadem on mentoring commissioned by MENTOR. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from http//www.mentoring.org/leaders/partnerships/index.php?s=CT.3http//www.mentoring.org/leaders/partnerships/index.php?s=CT.4The Governors Partn ership Program Connecticut Mentoring Program. Retrieved on December 1, 2006, from http//www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html.5http//www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html.6http//www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html.7Project Choice Mentoring Program. Received from http//www.projectchoicementor.org/index.htm.8Connecticut Mentoring Partnership 2005-2006 Evaluation Results executive Summary. Received December 1, 2006, from http//www.preventionworksct.org.
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