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Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, 3rd Edition

MENTOR’s keystone publication on mentoring standards has been updated and released to include the latest research and practice wisdom available to help mentoring relationships thrive and endure.

The Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, Third Edition, was sponsored through a generous grant from The MetLife Foundation and, as in past editions, brought together the nation’s foremost authorities on mentoring under the leadership of Dr. Jean Rhodes of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Dr. Janis Kupersmidt of innovation Research & Training.

This new publication includes six evidence-based standards addressing mentor and mentee recruitment; screening; training; matching; monitoring and support; and closure. Each standard offers benchmarks for day-to-day operations, and they are applicable in stand-alone mentoring programs, as well as programs where mentoring is one element. Each standard also offers enhancements that program staff can incorporate, based on the experience of outstanding mentoring practitioners.
In addition, this resource includes a section on practical advice in building a new mentoring program or strengthening an existing one. It focuses on program design and planning; program management; and program evaluation.

The process to update the Elements for this third edition involved a design team chaired by Dr. Rhodes, as well as input and counsel from members of MENTOR’s Research and Policy Council, an Executive Review Board from Mentoring Partnerships across the country and members of the Federal Mentoring Council and its National Mentoring Working Group.

Download a copy of the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, Third Edition.

Glossary of Terms

Responsible mentoring:

Is a structured, one-to-one relationship or partnership that focuses on the needs of mentored participants.
Fosters caring and supportive relationships.
Encourages individuals to develop to their fullest potential.
Helps an individual to develop his or her own vision for the future.
Is a strategy to develop active community partnerships.

Types of Mentoring:

Responsible mentoring can take many forms: traditional mentoring (one adult to one young person); group mentoring (one adult to up to four young people); team mentoring (several adults working with small groups of young people, in which the adult-to-youth ratio is not greater than 1:4); peer mentoring (caring youth mentoring other youth); and e-mentoring (mentoring via e-mail and the Internet).

Locations of Mentoring:

Mentoring can take place in a wide array of settings, such as at a workplace, in a school, at a faith-based organization, at a juvenile corrections facility, in a community setting and in the virtual community, where e-mentoring takes place.

Source: Rhodes, J.E. (2002). Stand by me: The risks and rewards of mentoring today’s youth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Acknowledgements

MENTOR is grateful to the hundreds of mentoring practitioners and researchers who so generously contributed their time and good counsel to the development of the third edition of Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™. It is their work, along with their dedication to sharing their best practices and research, which made this edition possible. And, it is their work which continues to propel mentoring to ever-higher levels of performance.

Special thanks also go to thoughtful reviewers drawn from the Federal Mentoring Council and its National Mentoring Working Group, Portland State University's Summer Institute on Mentoring Research, as well as to members of MENTOR's own Research and Policy Council and a National Executive Review Board composed of leaders from Mentoring Partnerships throughout the country.

Finally, we thank the Elements design team: Chair Jean Rhodes; Principal Investigator Janis Kupersmidt (innovation Research & Training); and Gail Manza, Kate Schineller, Rebecca Stelter (innovation Research & Training), Dave Van Patten, Larry Wright and Kristi Zappie-Ferradino.

Research and Policy Council

Jean E. Rhodes, Ph.D. (Chair)
University of Massachusetts, Boston

Dave Van Patten, MPA (Vice Chair)
Dare Mighty Things

Shay Bilchik, J.D.*
Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Georgetown University

Daniel Cardinali*
Communities In Schools, Inc.

David DuBois, Ph.D.*
University of Illinois at Chicago

David Eisner*

John Gomperts
Experience Corps

W. Wilson Goode, Sr., M.Div.*
Public/Private Ventures

Robert Grimm, Ph.D.
Corporation for National and Community Service

Stephen Hamilton, Ed.D.
Cornell University

Ron Haskins, Ph.D.
The Brookings Institution

Carla Herrera, Ph.D.*
Public/Private Ventures

Michael Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D.*
University of Texas at San Antonio

Irv Katz*
National Human Services Assembly

Thomas Keller, Ph.D.*
Portland State University

Richard Lerner, Ph.D.
Tufts University

Belle Liang, Ph.D.
Boston College

Karen Mathis
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Nancy Rappaport, M.D.
Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School

Renée Spencer, Ed.D., LICSW*
Boston University School of Social Work

Andrea Taylor, Ph.D.*
Temple University

Vivian Tseng, Ph.D.
William T. Grant Foundation

James Waller*
Friendship Schools

Michael Weinstein, Ph.D.
Robin Hood Foundation

Harry Wilson, MPA*
ICF International

Larry Wright, Ph.D.
Washington State Mentors

*Special advisors to the Elements design team

National Executive Review Board of Mentoring Partnerships

Indiana Youth Institute
Bill Stanczykiewicz
December Warren

Kansas Mentors
Ella Todd

Maryland Mentoring Partnership
Selwyn Ray
Clara Carter, Ph.D.

Mass Mentoring Partnership
David Shapiro
Sue Anne Endelman

Memphis Mentoring Partnership/Grizzlies Foundation
Alayne Shoenfeld

Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota
Joellen Gonder-Spacek
Polly Roach

Oregon Mentors
Carolyn Becic
Celeste Janssen

The Mentoring Center of Central Ohio
Marilyn Pritchett

The Mentoring Partnership of New York and Mentoring Partnership of Long Island
Jean Cohen
Bruce Beckwith
Franca Floro

Virginia Mentoring Partnership
Jennifer Smith-Slabaugh
Allyson Roberts

Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona
Scott Ingram
Dorian Townsend

Federal Mentoring Council

Corporation for National and Community Service (Convener)
Department of Agriculture
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service
Department of Defense
National Guard Bureau
Office of Military Community & Family Policy
Department of Education
Safe and Drug Free Schools
Department of Health and Human Services
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Family and Youth Services Bureau
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association
Children’s Bureau
Department of Justice
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Department of Labor
Employment & Training Administration
Office of Disability Employment Policy
Office of National Drug Control Policy

National Mentoring Working Group of the Federal Mentoring Council

Afterschool Alliance
Amachi
Amelior Foundation
America’s Promise Alliance
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Boisi Family Foundation
Boy Scouts of America
Boys and Girls Clubs of America
Camp Fire USA
Catholic Big Brothers
Communities In Schools, Inc.
Corporation for National and Community Service
Dare Mighty Things
Educate Tomorrow
Evaluation, Management & Training Associates
Ewing Kauffman Foundation
Friends of the Children
Goodwill Industries
Harvard Mentoring Project
iMentor
Kids Hope USA
MENTOR
Michigan Community Service Commission
National 4-H Council
National Alliance of Faith and Justice
National Coalition for Youth
National Human Services Assembly
National Network of Youth Ministries
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Orphan Foundation of America
Phoenix House of New York
Points of Light/Hands on Network
Public/Private Ventures
Redwood Community Action Agency
Retired OPM
Special Olympics (e-Buddies)
United Way of America
Youth Build
YouthFriends
YouthToday

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Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, 3rd Edition

Glossary of Terms