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Summary:
Youth mentoring refers to a relationship between youth -- particularly those most at risk of experiencing negative outcomes in adolescence and adulthood -- and the adults who support and guide them. The origin of the modern youth mentoring concept is credited to the efforts of charity groups that formed during the Progressive era of the early 1900s to provide practical assistance to poor and juvenile justiceinvolved youth, including help with finding employment. Approximately 2.5 million youth today are involved in formal mentoring relationships through Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of America and similar organizations. Contemporary mentoring programs seek to improve outcomes and reduce risks among vulnerable youth by providing positive role models who regularly meet with the youth in community or school settings. Some programs have broad youth development goals while others focus more narrowly on a particular outcome. A 1995 evaluation of the BBBS program and studies of other mentoring programs demonstrate an association between mentoring and some positive youth outcomes, but the effects of mentoring on particular outcomes and the ability for mentored youth to sustain gains over time is less certain. The current Administration has proposed new federal structured mentoring since FY2001 (though the Administration has also proposed phasing some of these services out beginning in FY2007). Two programs -- the Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program and Safe and Drug Free Schools (SDFS) Mentoring program -- provide the primary sources of dedicated federal funding for mentoring services. The Mentoring Children of Prisoners program was created in response to the growing number of children under age 18 with at least one parent who is incarcerated in a federal or state correctional facility. The program is intended, in part, to reduce the chance that mentored youth will use drugs and skip school. Similarly, the Mentoring program (proposed for elimination in FY2007 by the Administration) provides school-based mentoring to reduce school dropout and improve relationships for youth at risk of educational failure and with other risk factors. The Administration has also supported a pilot project, the Mentoring Initiative for System Involved Youth (MISIY), which seeks to identify and expand effective mentoring programs for youth in the juvenile justice or foster care systems (Congress appropriated funds for MISIY only in FY2006). Finally, other federal initiatives support mentoring efforts, including the Federal Mentoring Council and dedicated funding for mentoring organizations like BBBS. Three bills have been introduced in the 110th Congress that primarily concern mentoring. The Foster Care Mentoring Act (S. 379) seeks to provide additional mentoring services for youth in the foster care system. The Mentoring America's Children Act (H.R. 2611 and S. 1812) would make changes to the SDFS Mentoring program. Issues relevant to the federal role in mentoring include the limitations of research on outcomes for mentored youth, the potential need for additional mentors, grantees' challenges in sustaining funding, and the possible discontinuation of federal mentoring funding. This report will be updated as legislative activity warrants.
