Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center Helping Others Pursue Excellence in Public Schools: a Process Evaluation of Hope Cdc’s Mentoring Program Overview of Youth Mentoring Programs Source: Extracted from Mentoring School-age Children: Relationship Development in Community-based and School-based Mentoring Programs

Mentoring is a social intervention that can provide needed guidance and support from caring adults in the lives of youth if developed and implemented effectively. Over the years much enthusiasm for these types of programs has been generated making it relatively easy to gain buy-in from parents, teachers, and other stakeholders. Well known mentoring programs, such as those affiliated with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, have long been identified as models for best practices in youth mentoring. Research is, however, still mixed regarding the impact of these types of interventions. There is some evidence of the ability of mentoring programs to impact alcohol and drug use, peer and child-parent relationships, school attendance, and attitudes about and performance in school (Tierney, Grossman, and Resch, 1995). However, it is agreed that the success of such programs is contingent upon proper program implementation and design. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine whether the HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) Community Development Corporation mentoring program is designed in a manner that would suggest it has potential for producing positive impacts in the lives of youth. This is accomplished by examining the development of the program and comparing it to programs with demonstrated success at reducing antisocial behavior and increasing school performance among at-risk youth. More specifically, this evaluation utilizes information on characteristics or elements of mentoring programs that have been linked to effectiveness. These elements provide evaluation criteria that serve as a framework for assessing the extent to which the HOPE CDC mentoring program is designed in a manner that is consistent with other successful programs. In addition, these criteria are used to guide an examination of the program’s implementation. That is, the degree to which services are delivered in a manner consistent with the program’s design and evidence-based practices. The areas that form the basis for the evaluation criteria include: program integrity, staff selection and characteristics, youth identification and selection, mentoryouth matching process, relationship quality, use of community resources, and program monitoring. Multiple data sources are used to examine the congruence between the proposed evaluation criteria and the design of the HOPE CDC mentoring program. Program records/documentation and semi-structured interviews with mentors and school personnel provide information on the organizational structure and workings of the program. Moreover, both parents and students provide insight into the activities and relationships being developed by the program through selfadministered surveys. Data on contacts, grades, attendance, and behavior are also used to examine the characteristics of the targeted youth population, as well as the quality of mentor-youth relationships. This report begins with an overview of youth mentoring programs.