Strength-Based Service To Youth Essay

Teaching students necessary life skills in a positive learning environment, I hope to create mentors and provide substantial friendships for these young, impressionable students with art lessons and writing workshops to expand creative skills, physical fitness programs to promote healthy lifestyles, and mentoring sessions to maintain a beneficial state of mind and teach the students conflict resolution and similar psychological skills, which can be applied and used to maintain constructive relationships within their family and success within their schoolwork. Similar programs have been used in the "Our Kids" after school program with widespread success rates, more than half of the students benefiting from these tutorial and mentoring sessions have raised their school grades by ten percentage points or more and the children who were once considered trouble makers by the administrators of their elementary schools in downtown Hattiesburg and by the opinions of their parents, have adopted positive new attitudes and their discipline problems are no longer apparent.

A growing body of research suggests that natural mentors, that is, caring nonparental adults, such as extended family members, neighbors, teachers, and after school staff, who provide young people with ongoing support and guidance, play an important role in healthy development, particularly during adolescence (DuBois & Silverthorn, 2005b; Hirsch, Deutsch, & DuBois, 2011; Rhodes,Spencer, Keller, Liang, & Noam, 2006; Theokas & Lerner, 2006). Based on these studies we determine that mentors play a vital role in helping youth navigate the uncertainty of the adolescent years. Studies show that youth are less likely to engage in high risk behaviors ranging from use of illicit substances, truancy, and teen pregnancy. Dropout rates were also found to significantly diminish with the presence of a natural or volunteer mentorship. The use of mentoring programs to improve outcomes for at-risk youth has grown steadily in recent years (Rhodes & Roffman 2003). Resilience research has consistently identified the presence of a supportive and caring nonparental adult in the lives of children and youth who succeed despite adversity and hardship (Masten & Garmezy 1985; Werner 1992). Both natural mentors and volunteer mentors can buffer youth from poor outcomes by (1) providing a

Tim saw this and became inspired to become a mentor with the Helping Services For Northeast Iowa. In order to be a mentor “The ability and willingness to value the mentee as a person; Develop mutual trust and respect; Maintain confidentiality; Listen both to what is being said and how it is being said; Help the mentee solve his or her problems, rather than give directions; Focus on the mentee’s development and resist the urge to produce a clone.” (University of Washington). Since the start of the Youth Mentoring Services in Northeast Iowa, 1,137 youth have been connected to a role model (“Youth Mentoring Services”). Kids who are mentored have ”significantly more confident in their academic abilities and considerably less likely to display behavioral problems.”(Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). Through the mentoring experience, Tim has learned that the best part is guiding some fun into a child's life while educating them (Egemo). Tim has helped a few children become better human beings through this mentoring

One thing I believe is a necessity in growing up is having a mentor. Having a mentor is, not only, beneficial for the mentee but also the mentor. Being a mentor is a learning experience for everyone participating, it helps people grow as a person and friendships are created when a bond if formed. Some people might think it's a waste of time for a child or that it'll never work out for a troubled delinquent but based on the research I've done, I have proven them wrong. Through-out this paper I will provide the pros and cons of mentoring and how they affect both mentor and mentee. To back up my proposal that mentoring is supporting, I will supply examples to answer the question: Is mentoring really important?

Although school based mentoring is more cost efficient over community based programs, involving less frequent support for mentor-mentee matches and shorter assessment processes, they may block some capacity of the organization to develop solid, long term school-based matches. In contrast to MODEL, BBBS youth are referred only through their parents, and mentors meet with youth only about two to four times a month to play the role of friend and guidance provider. MODEL believes a one-on-one relationship needs to connect more consistently than a few times a month and should be more actively involved in their academic life. A mentor that meets their mentee at least a couple times a week can have a greater impact and connection they develop. MODEL hopes to do more than meet the basic needs of youth development. It hopes to promote more guidance and support in all areas of a young person’s life in order to help them reach their

The organization encourages teens to discover interests and develop their talents regardless of the barriers to success for youth coming of age in impoverished or high crime neighborhood. Connecting youths to positive role models, cultivating their skills and interest and creating opportunities for them to shine positions them for success as healthy adults, strong leaders and active citizens. The components through which this is achieved is through the Juvenile Justice Reform and Preparing youth for Adulthood. The Juvenile Justice program utilizes non-traditional solutions to meet the city’s need for comprehensive and effective rehabilitation. Preparing Youth for Adulthood through partnership with skilled mentors, inspiring role models and Colleges closed the gaps left by past abuse and neglect. This helps to restore self- esteem that that fuels hard work, personal development and success.

Mentoring is an effective way to prevent at-risk youth especially from getting involved in delinquency and also to help already delinquent youth/ juvenile offenders to change their lives for the better. RJRPC mentoring program targets non-violent, non-serious, non-sex juvenile offenders aged between 10 and 18 who live on the South West area of Napa City and who are referred to RJRPC by the Family Court and the Napa County Juvenile Probation and Corrections Department. The center, which was established in 2006, has served over 14,000 youth within the 9 years it has been in operation with its six programs designed to focus on the individual, relationships, or community. Our juvenile mentoring program is designed to serve the needs of the youth in family like setting, situated as close to home as possible, with action built around the youth and family strengths while delivering services in a culturally sensitive and competent manner. The purpose of conducting this long over due evaluation is to answer vital questions about the effectiveness of our mentoring program. Data collected during the evaluation will be useful to

The Therapeutic Mentoring program provides these children with an advanced degree-level Therapeutic Mentor. Together they build a care plan, which strategically addresses the child’s specific emotional, behavioral and academic needs. They meet in the child’s home, school or community at least once a week for a year. All activities are goal driven, strength-based, and collaborative in nature. The goals are obtainable, measurable and effective. In 2016, PCHAS provided mentoring to 645 children and young adults. Although we are proud of the strides we have made, there are still thousands of hurting children in need a mentor.

Cornerstone Youth Center highlights that our role is to guide and mentor our clients. Although some of our responsibilities may align with counselors or social work; We are neither those figures, but instead we are a source of help outside their school. From my client’s perspective, I believe they perceive my role as a mentor that they can have a therapeutic relationship with; it is therapeutic because we can address both positive and negative factors in their life. We educate and find sources for youth that want to inquire in topics like sex, mental illness, drugs, building a healthy relationship, and health & wellness in a formal and a comfortable

After the five week treatment was complete the adolescent where asked to talk about their experience and what they liked most about the strengths based perspective and the program. Many of the teens liked how they learned to identify and use their strengths. They likes learning how to focus on their strengths instead of focusing on their problems. This could help the adolescents from turning to drug use because thinking and determining their strengths can be a deterrent.

The passion I have to watch others progress does not end on the soccer or softball fields. I am a residential counselor in an adolescent trauma treatment program, with the Family Service of Rhode Island team, guiding and encouraging clients’ recovery from the negative effects of their experiences. The opportunity to serve as a mentor to adolescents was a goal I had set for myself, after facing many obstacles as an adolescent who left home by age sixteen. Nevertheless, overcame those obstacles, despite the lack of guidance and support, I received from

It provided a number of one to one mentoring services for young people at risk of youth offending, gang involvement and failing or leaving education. One of the programmes supported by JUMP is the big brothers and big sisters of America (BBBS) as a result of this programme the young people mentored were 46% less likely to initiate drug or alcohol use, they were a third less likely to perform in acts of violence and half as likely to truant. The BBBS made matches such as a daughter living in her father’s care would be matched to a female mentor. According to the parents and teachers of the young people involved in this project 30% of young people showed academic improvement, 33% improved on their school attendance and 48% showed improvement on appropriate behaviour amongst their friends and family. It also displayed

The mentoring program is used as way to help juvenile offenders change their behavior and maladaptive thought. Attendance of the mentoring program is dependent on the judge that is adjudicating the child, the probation officer handling the case or the guardian of the juvenile offender. Most of the time, the judge or probation officer look at the needs of the child and the distress of the family to determine if the child would benefit from the program. If a child exhibits poor coping skills or poor decision-making skills, a mentor may be useful so that the child can experience being around someone of more positive regard. When a child is having family issues; for instance an

Introduction: The present research would seek to expand upon the current research base of mentor programs. Having an adult mentor is one of the greatest predictors of whether as student with finish high school, but more is information is needed. Indeed, mentoring programs are already associated with improved outcomes such as higher graduation rates, better grades, better jobs, and less drug abuse, but what makes for a successful program? Obviously, the goal behind these programs is to benefit children, but making sure your program is getting the most from its funding is imperative when budgets are as tight as they are in educational community.

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