Mentoring Military-Connected Youth: A Survey of Program Practices

School-based mentoring (SBM), when implemented using best practices, can be an effective and non-stigmatizing intervention for students at risk for social and academic difficulties (e.g., Wheeler, Keller & DuBois, 2010). SBM is also a good fit for youth exhibiting moderate levels of risk, relative to youth whose risk level is either very severe (e.g., actively delinquent) or trivial (e.g., DuBois et al., 2002). For these reasons, SBM for military-connected youth (MCY), or youth with a parent in the military, National Guard, or Reserve, would appear to be a promising prevention strategy for school districts seeking to serve students whose families have been affected by deployment related stress. However, whether and how best practices for mentoring more generally may need to be modified to meet the specific needs of MCY is not known. The purpose of this study was to document current practices among youth mentoring programs intentionally serving MCY. It was conducted as part of a larger Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funded project to develop a model for SBM for MCY.

To better understand whether and in what ways mentoring programs are adapting practices to serve MCY, we conducted a national survey. We sought participation from agencies that (1) had a program (or program component) specifically for MCY, (2) had a program located on or near a military installation, (3) had at least 5% of mentees in their program identify as MCY, or (4) intentionally reached out to MCY. Information about the on-line survey and invitations to participate were distributed widely, through such means as inclusion in an email blast from MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership and a request sent to participants in an annual national training event for mentoring program practitioners. Twenty-six participants responded to over100 questions on practices utilized or amended for MCY. Six respondents were then selected to participate in semi-structured qualitative interviews and asked to describe their practices in depth.

Findings addressed nine areas of mentoring best practices, which will be detailed in this poster presentation, and highlighted both successful implementation practices and lessons learned by these agencies. Half of programs surveyed reported that convincing military families that mentoring was a good fit for them was the single most challenging aspect of serving MCY. This finding was also reflected in the qualitative findings, in which participants consistently emphasized the importance of making connections with military communities in order to establish sustainable and meaningful mentoring programs for MCY.