September/October 2002 | NW REPORT

Mentoring Center

Releases Two New Publications

By Michael Garringer

cover, same-race and cross-race matching Publication

The Laboratory's National Mentoring Center has two new titles available from its popular Technical Assistance Packet Series. The packets are designed for youth mentoring program coordinators and turn the latest in mentoring research into hands-on tools for designing effective programs.

Technical Assistance Packet #7, Same-Race and Cross-Race Matching, takes an indepth look at research into the efficacy of matching mentors and youths of different races and offers useful advice for program coordinators and caseworkers. Based on research conducted by Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) of Philadelphia on a wide variety of youth mentoring programs, this guidebook examines whether cross-race matches have significantly different outcomes for youth than those that are same-race.

Many mentoring programs struggle with issues of race in making appropriate matches between volunteers and youth. P/PV's research shows that there is often little difference between same-and cross-race matches in the quality of the relationships and the outcomes for youth. While many programs may still encourage same-race matches, this research shows that cross-race matches are almost equally beneficial to youth. Often, just having anybody acting as a positive role model is of tremendous value to disadvantaged youth.

Same-Race and Cross-Race Matching can help programs wade through the issues surrounding race and mentoring and can help caseworkers devise a matching strategy that works best for their program's goals, their community's values, and the youth in the program.

cover, measuring the quality of mentor-youth relationships Publication

Technical Assistance Packet #8, Measuring the Quality of Mentor-Youth Relationships: A Tool for Mentoring Programs, is an evaluation guide to help program coordinators gauge the effectiveness of their mentor-youth matches. The process begins by giving the youth in the program a 20-question survey. The packet then guides the evaluator through the process of scoring and interpreting the surveys.

Scoring sheets allow the program staff to not only measure the quality of the individual relationships—for example, whether they are "youth centered," "emotionally engaging," and "youth satisfying"—but to synthesize survey results to measure whether the program itself is developing healthy relationships. The data can be used to make a specific match stronger, as well as to determine future training needs, implement new policies, and measure program progress. The packet comes with reproducible surveys and scoring sheets.

To order these technical assistance packets, or previous titles in the series, please call 503-275-0135 or e-mail mentorcenter@nwrel.org. The series is also available online at www.nwrel.org/mentoring/packets.html.