How Mentoring Works

Mentoring is a structured, consistent, and purposeful one-to-one relationship between a young person and a caring adult.
Mentors serve as positive role models and encourage and motivate students to become their best.
Mentoring is not case management, therapy, or teaching.
Mentoring first focuses on relationships building to establish mutual trust, respect, and friendship. Once these building blocks are in place, mentoring can start to address specific goals and sensitive issues.
Mentors offer students a pathway to expand their life perspectives, overcome obstacles and build on their strengths to make positive choices and develop essential school and life skills.
Mentoring is a proven strategy to build resiliency and life skills. Students in consistent mentoring relationships have been shown to be:
- less likely to begin using drugs or alcohol
- less likely to engage in violence
- more likely to attend school
- more likely to have a positive attitude toward school (Public/Private Ventures Big Brothers Big Sisters Study, 1995)
- more likely to be positive toward elders and toward helping others (Jakielek et al., 2002)

How the Mentoring For Success program works

This is a school-based program. Mentor pairs meet weekly on the school site for approximately one hour during the school year and also have contact during the summer.
A Mentor Program Coordinator at the school site manages all aspects of the program to support mentors and their student mentees.
Mentors engage in a variety of asset-building activities with students on school grounds.
The program considers the individual needs and culture of each student.
Group activities are held during the school year and in the summer months.
Students may be referred to the mentor program by school staff. Students are invited to participate and parent/guardian consent is required.

This page was last updated on June 28, 2021