Innovation Research & Training
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Hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents participate in mentoring programs each year in the US. Mentoring is defined as the presence of a caring adult who offers support, advice, friendship, and a constructive example. Among the positive outcomes for mentored youth are reduced problem behaviors (alcohol use, gang membership); greater school attendance, high school completion, and college attendance; psychological well-being (e.g., self-esteem, life satisfaction); and better health.
The positive effects of mentoring on youth outcomes become progressively stronger over time and have been found to be greatest when relationships last at least one (1) year. For youth in relationships that terminate prematurely, especially if they end within the first 6 months, there were no clear benefits of being mentored.
Unfortunately, early closures in mentoring relationships are not rare. In fact, about half of all volunteer mentoring relationships end prematurely. Mentoring relationships often end abruptly as a result of misunderstandings and miscommunication between the caregivers of the mentored child, the mentee, and the mentor. Mentors who quit prematurely often say, “It’s not what I expected.”
iRT received federal grant funding to create a new web-based, pre-match training program for mentors to better prepare them for participating in a mentoring relationship. Check it out at www.mentoringcentral.net. The next challenge is to develop training for the other people involved in the mentoring relationship, namely, the mentee and his or her parent or caregiver.
Please complete the following
1) Propose a solution for an engaging, interactive training that teaches children/adolescents about the mentoring relationship.
2) Specifically, your training should explain how you would address the following:
· Benefits of being mentored
· How to set realistic goals/expectations for the mentoring relationship
· Roles and responsibilities of all parties involved
· Safety issues to remember when entering a mentoring relationship
· Preparing for the first time you will meet your mentor
Criteria: Most mentees are between 8 and 18 years old. The training can use video, animations, games, badging, handouts, quizzes, or a combination of any of these or other methods. It must be designed for delivery on the web, and be able to be accessed on desktop and mobile devices. Be creative!
Solvers who have coursework or training in instructional design or educational pedagogy could be considered for a potential job opening to help create the mentorship training software. Lectora is the software being used to create the trainings.
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Submissions will be graded on the following criteria:
- Meets Deliverables
- Creativity
- Clarity
will receive $150 each
will receive $50 each
| $150.00 |
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Zachary Lund Colorado State University | |
| $150.00 |
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Mindi Chen Northeastern University | |
| $150.00 |
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Nicholas Jurewicz State University of New York at Buffalo | |
| $50.00 |
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Thatcher Eills Wesleyan University | |
| $50.00 |
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Yolanta Siu University of California at Berkeley | |
| $50.00 |
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Christie Berard University at Albany, SUNY |