Mentoring

Approximately 5,000 mentoring programs across the U.S. serve about three million youth, according to the MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership. The Corporation for National and Community Service reports that almost 12 million Americans volunteer their time as mentors annually.

Mentoring has evolved to address serious youth-related social problems through peer, group, and e-mentoring programs in settings such as afterschool programs, faith-based organizations, and work sites. Mentoring serves youth in foster care, children of incarcerated parents, immigrant youth, juvenile delinquents, juveniles re-entering the community, and children in military families, with the goal of improving academic performance, decreasing recidivism and substance use, and building interest in future careers.

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Roger Jarjoura

Principal Researcher
Related Topics
Human Services
Related Work

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Meet the Expert: Roger Jarjoura

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Roger Jarjoura is on the leadership team for AIR’s National Reentry Resource Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to joining AIR in 2012, he spent 19 years as a faculty member in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where he served as a fellow ...

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A Quick Word About Mentoring With: Manolya Tanyu, Senior Researcher

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The 2012 Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration program was designed to strengthen existing youth mentoring programs across the United States. In this Q&A, Manolya Tanyu describes the effectiveness of the programmatic enhancements—and the challenges of implementing them across a wide array of youth mentoring organizations. ...

Evaluation of OJJDP’s Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program

Millions of children across the United States benefit from mentoring every year. Selected by the U.S. Library of Congress, AIR conducted a five-year evaluation of mentoring enhancement demonstration programs funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The goal was to assess whether strategic enhancements to the roles ...

Mentoring for At-Risk High School Students: Findings From a Study of Check & Connect

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To improve graduation rates, districts and schools need clear, evidence-based information about the impact of dropout prevention strategies. Check & Connect is a mentoring program designed to promote positive outcomes (including student engagement, progress and persistence, and school completion) through the provision of continuous, individualized student support. This research brief ...

Helping Ex-Offenders Return to Their Communities: An Interview with Roger Jarjoura

19 May 2016
More than nine million individuals are released from correctional facilities annually, and the transition home is not always easy. Many face numerous obstacles including poverty, drug abuse, family dysfunction, and lack of access to services and treatment. Failure to reconnect can mean that many end up back in prison: 68 ...

Long Story Short: How Can Mentoring Help Children of Incarcerated Parents?

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Almost two million children in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent. In this video interview, Roger Jarjoura, principal researcher at AIR, explains how mentoring can help them stay engaged in school and thrive.