In 2012, OJJDP launched the Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program (MEDP) and evaluation to study the effects of incorporating teaching roles (e.g., organizing activities to develop skills or knowledge, providing assistance with schoolwork) and advocacy roles (e.g., facilitating access to community resources, collaborating with other professionals to support the mentee) for mentors. To help mentors successfully build in these functions, participating agencies were expected to provide mentors with preliminary as well as ongoing training, guidance, and support.
The goal of MEDP was to develop program models that specified what advocacy and teaching look like in practice, understand what factors might influence the adoption of these enhanced mentoring roles, and determine whether the enhancements could influence youth outcomes. OJJDP awarded funding to 10 mentoring collaboratives, which included a total of 32 mentoring sites. The programs varied widely in their geographical locations, size, experience in mentoring, and structure of their mentoring programs. Nearly 2,200 youth mentees participated, most of whom were between the ages of 11 and 15.
OJJDP managed and coordinated the project in close collaboration with American Institutes for Research (AIR) and a senior design team; specialists in data management and program development; and program staff from the participating mentoring agencies. AIR conducted a rigorous process and outcome evaluation involving a randomized controlled trial that compared the new enhancements to “business-as-usual” mentoring at the programs; it also included an analysis of data from program records and surveys of youth, mentors, and parents. Following are some of the evaluation’s findings:
Resources:
To learn more about MEDP, access a recorded two-part webinar recently organized by OJJDP’s National Mentoring Resource Center. The first and second parts of the webinar are titled, respectively, “Lessons Learned From the Implementation of the Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program” and “Findings From the Outcome Evaluation of the Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program.”
The National Mentoring Resource Center has launched a series of blogs highlighting approaches to teaching and advocacy that were developed by several of the OJJDP-funded organizations.
To read a technical report and appendices describing the findings of the MEDP evaluation, visit the website of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.