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BY REQUEST... September 1998 PDF version In Context
Implementing a Mentoring Program:
Appedix A:
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In Context
Today’s youth are growing up in a world in which caring, supportive adults tend to have less time to spend with them and are increasingly hard to find (Freedman & Baker, 1995). As enrollment in the nation’s schools continues to grow and resources dwindle in many areas, teachers often find themselves unable
to provide individual attention and support to each student.
Single and working parents have less time to spend with their children as they struggle to meet the time demands of work
and family. And, for poor and migrant students especially, the national trend of greater geographic mobility has resulted in many students being cut off from the groups that mentoring relationships traditionally grew out of—extended family, longtime neighbors, family friends, and tribes (Freedman, 1993; Smink, 1990).
The decrease in adult involvement in children’s lives has been linked to numerous consequences for youth, from low achievement or grades, to lowered career aspirations, to truancy and juvenile crime (Freedman, 1993; Smink, 1990). In an effort to counteract these trends, schools, social service agencies, and community organizations across the country are turning to mentoring programs, hoping to strengthen students’ chances
for success by providing them with greater access to caring adults and the wealth of resources those adults possess.
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