Leveraging University-School Mentoring Partnerships to Promote Positive Youth Development

SSBHC May 2022 Webinar: Leveraging University-School Mentoring Partnerships to Promote Positive Youth Development w/ Tia Anderson, Ph.D. and Karen Hunter, Ed.S

Mentorship programs have proliferated in recent years as an intervention and prevention strategy. There are now more than 5,000 mentoring programs serving an estimated three million youth in the United States. This webinar will provide an overview of the research on the effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth and highlight the potential of school-based mentoring programs to promote positive youth development. We will provide an overview of the UofSC Adolescent Mentoring Program, a university-school partnership program created by the presenters, discuss the program’s development and implementation, successes, and continuing challenges. We will conclude by discussing key steps for building university-K12 partnership mentoring programs that leverage the largely untapped potential of university students as mentors for promoting youth wellbeing and school engagement in communities adjacent to university and beyond.