What is Mentoring?

As a strategy for helping young people succeed in life, mentoring works.

Young people acquire the confidence, resources and skills they need to reach their potential. But like any youth-development strategy, mentoring works best when measures are taken to ensure quality and effectiveness. When the tool of change is a close relationship -- as is the case with mentoring --everyone involved should proceed with care.

Meaningful Opportunity

Research indicates that alcohol and drug use among young people may be related to the lack of adult supervision.

Youth must be given meaningful, age-appropriate opportunities to interact with pro-social adults and community leaders, to contribute to the community, and to participate in this deicsion making process in order to build young people's self-confidence and self-esteem.

Mentoring programs provide youth with structured time with adults and are related to reductions in substance use, and increases in positivity towards others, the future, and school. Also, participation in these programs is related to increased school attendance (Lo Sciuoto, Rajala, Townsend & Taylor, 1996).

Positive Values

Mentoring programs attempt to convey positive values, attitudes, and life skills through a one-on-one relationship with a positive role model. Effective mentoring programs requiring a minimum of 1 year (or one school year) commitment from both student and mentor who interact for a minimum 4-6 hours per month, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (Lo Sciuto, Rajala, Townsend & Taylor, 1996)

Mentoring programs based on these above principles have been found to increase youth awareness and knowledge of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) and alternatives to ATOD use, increase young people's negative attitudes related to ATOD use, delay first use of ATOD, increase social and life skills as well as positive attitudes toward school (Center for Prevention Research and Development, 1998).