Mentoring 101
What is mentoring?
Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter.
Why mentor?
Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, training and mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, education, and social and economic opportunity. Yet one in three young people will grow up without this critical asset.
What is the “mentoring gap?”
1 in 3 young people in the U.S. will reach the age of 19 without having a mentor. This is the mentoring gap in the United States that Mentor California aims to bridge.
Why does mentoring matter?
Mentored youth are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who do not have a mentor.
Students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class.
Mentored youth are 46% less likely than their peers to start using drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking.
Mentored youth are 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities.
Mentored youth are more than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.
Mentored youth are 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.
The most conservative study of mentoring estimates a $3 to $1 return on investment.