Hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents participate in mentoring programs each year in the US. Mentoring is defined as the presence of a caring adult who offers support, advice, friendship, and a constructive example. Among the positive outcomes for mentored youth are reduced problem behaviors (alcohol use, gang membership); greater school attendance, high school completion, and college attendance; psychological well-being (e.g., self-esteem, life satisfaction); and better health.

The positive effects of mentoring on youth outcomes become progressively stronger over time and have been found to be greatest when relationships last at least one (1) year. For youth in relationships that terminate prematurely, especially if they end within the first 6 months, there were no clear benefits of being mentored.

Unfortunately, early closures in mentoring relationships are not rare. In fact, about half of all volunteer mentoring relationships end prematurely. Mentoring relationships often end abruptly as a result of misunderstandings and miscommunication between the caregivers of the mentored child, the mentee, and the mentor. Mentors who quit prematurely often say, “It’s not what I expected.”

iRT received federal grant funding to create a new web-based, pre-match training program for mentors to better prepare them for participating in a mentoring relationship. Check it out at www.mentoringcentral.net. The next challenge is to develop training for the other people involved in the mentoring relationship, namely, the mentee and his or her parent or caregiver.