Helpful Youth Mentoring Links

Heart For Youth Charitable Trust

The Heart For Youth Charitable Trust (H4Y) is on the North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand. It’s mission: “To accept, connect, equip and encourage youth & young adults through the integration of training processes and programs covering life skills/ values, self-awareness, self-esteem/ self-discipline principles and personal growth of all youth/young adults from any ethnicities – inclusive of youth at risk, those marginalised, underprivileged and those having special needs or disabilities in Aotearoa New Zealand”.

Our four core values of H4Y are: ACCEPT CONNECT EQUIP ENCOURAGE

Some of the programs offered include: youth mentoring, parent support, life skills training, counselling and crisis support, ‘in-schools’ peer mentor training and support and lots more.

Coast Youth Community Trust (Coast Mentoring)

Launched in New Zealand in October 2020, Coast Youth Community Trust (CYCT) runs a youth mentoring program in collaboration with Upside Youth Mentoring. CYCT supports young people aged 10-24 yrs who would benefit from having an adult mentor to support them on their journey. Mentors meet up with their mentee on a weekly basis. Together they talk, learn, grow and have a lot of fun along the way!

Upside Youth Mentoring

Upside Youth Mentoring (formerly Brothers In Arms) supports change in Aotearoa New Zealand’s young people with adverse childhood experiences. We want to help them feel a little brighter and more loved than they did yesterday. Our dream is to change the future of our nation. We’ve been matching young people with mentors since 2006 and with over 700 matches and 6000 hours of mentoring a year, we’ve seen time and time again the life-changing effects of this connection. 90% success rate in 2019 (24% higher than international standard).   We work with young people aged 9-13 years old who have been referred to us from principals, counsellors, psychologists and social workers who believe a positive role model is what this young person needs to help navigate their current challenges.

MENTOR National Mentoring Partnership

This is one of the top youth mentoring websites (based in the United States of America) and, most importantly, contains an excellent section covering Effective Practices for running a mentoring programme. Numerous documents are freely available to be downloaded off this site.

Frontline Solutions

A New Zealand organisation offering youth mentoring products e.g. The Student Performer Software; The Mentor Profiler software. Non-threatening profilers, valuable assets for monitoring one’s personal development. Participants are given strategies to work on to help them reach their potential, as students or as mentors. This is a great tool for evaluating the mentoring journey, as it is completed by both the Mentors and the Mentees (Student Performer) – email Doug Cowie:frontline@maxnet.co.nz.

The New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network

Formerly the Auckland Youth Mentoring Association (established in 2000), The New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network is a not-for-profit charitable Trust. The vision of the Network is to encourage the setting up of effective youth mentoring programs in communities in New Zealand. It aims to support and promote effective youth mentoring by providing resources and training opportunities, facilitating networking and co-ordination, creating a positive public profile for youth mentoring, and encouraging community engagement in quality mentoring programmes. Most New Zealand youth mentoring programs can be found on this site.

Mentoring jobs?!

There are more and more jobs linked to mentoring these days. Here is an example of a place where you can see the variety of jobs on offer, some paid, others unpaid.

Vaping - you can encourage teenagers to stop!

Vaping has become a challenging issue to discuss with youth. As someone who battled Cancer as a young boy, quite obviously I do not wish anyone to go through experiences I had.

Currently, on this link you will learn the following:

What is Vaping?

Types of Vapes

A discussion on whether or not vaping is dangerous including the negative known effects of vaping

The current outbreak of vaping illnesses

Whether or not countries such as Canada or the UK have similar issues

Why teens vape

How to tell if a teen is vaping

How not to properly stop teens from vaping

How to properly stop teens from vaping

Drug and Alcohol Abuse and other Addictions

Increasingly neuroscience research is suggesting that drugs and alcohol have a greater effect on teens than on adults. The signs of addiction can be difficult to understand, and many adolescents don’t realize the long-term damage drugs have on their bodies because the short-term side-effects fade. Although this is a USA website, there is some helpful information for anyone wanting to know more about drug and alcohol abuse. Always double-check the services available in the areas in which you live and work.

Two other helpful websites are: Addiction Guide and  Addiction Signs

Another interesting site looks at youth addictions including video-gaming

There is a helpful site, Substance Use Prevention Education This is a comprehensive drug education platform for individuals of all ages. SUPE has helpful articles and engaging videos for kids, teens, parents, and teachers. This educational content  is accompanied with tailored curriculums designed by professionals in education. Resources are also provided for for employers, aging adults, and industry professionals; it is a platform for everyone.

Check on whether your child has addiction symptoms and might need help or treatment

Parenting Place

A New Zealand organization with parenting programs, family coaching, school programs, online support and much more. Many resources available.

Raise: The Youth Mentoring Foundation

An Australian youth mentoring movement creating thriving communities across Australia. Its mission is to impact youth wellbeing and engagement through early intervention mentoring programs in schools and communities. Its purpose is to ensure young people feel heard, valued and supported.

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

This is an excellent American site for research on youth issues and youth mentoring. Plenty of information for those working with students from high risk environments (‘at risk’). Great information on setting up a youth mentoring programme, funding strategies and a whole lot more.

Big Brothers Big Sisters International

Based in America, Big Brothers Big Sisters International is a global alliance of country-specific associations of Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer mentoring programs working to improve the lives of children and youth around the world.

Childtrends

Based in America, Childtrends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs and policies that affect children and their families. There is useful research available, especially for those involved in setting up mentoring programmes and trainers who might be looking for more information on young people.

Search Institute

An American site with plenty of research and information on how to promote the building of assets while working with youth. Great for those involved in youth mentoring and education. Their findings and resources have heavily influenced the work of Youth Empowerment Seminars!

Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota

An American site,the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota is the driving force in the mentoring movement; bringing together diverse individuals and organizations to connect caring adults with a generation of kids in mentoring relationships. Their commitment to youth is to make mentoring more mainstream in Minnesota.

National Dropout Prevention Centres

An American site which provides knowledge and promotes networking for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and families to increase opportunities for youth in at-risk situations to receive the quality education and services necessary to successfully graduate from high school. Some useful mentoring information can be found on the Effective Strategies page.

Resiliency in Action

Nan Henderson and others have produced some excellent resources and articles on resiliency, a crucial component of a credible youth mentoring program.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection

The MISSION of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) is to provide an organized framework that empowers and encourages adult volunteers to give their time, effort, ideas and advocacy in seeking life-changing solutions for children living in educationally and economically disadvantaged environments such as the Cabrini-Green housing development in Chicago. There is some interesting material on their site. There is also access to other mentor and tutor blog pages which are well worth visiting.

Scottish Mentoring Network

This website contains the most comprehensive on-line library of mentoring information in Scotland, as well as many links to other organisations involved in coaching and mentoring.

Life Changing Experiences Foundation

An Australian website which includes the SISTER2sister mentoring project.Currently The SISTER2sister Project mentors 40 at risk teenage girls in the Sydney metropolitan area. Each of the girls is assigned a “Big Sister” mentor as a positive female role model to provide support, guidance and advice, where needed, throughout the 12 month project.

Mentor Consulting Group

Based in America and founded by Dr Susan Weinberger, one of the experts in the field of mentoring, this organisation has some useful tips for those wanting to set up mentoring programmes.

Informal Education

A useful U.K. site for articles on mentoring research and learning mentors, the latter a relatively new mentoring concept.

e-Buddies

A Best Buddies International Program. This organisation matches volunteers with people who have mental retardation and other disabilities.

Teacher Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation website with ideas and suggestions for Teacher’s Day, Teacher Appreciation Week and other student-teacher special occasions.

The Governor's Prevention Partnership (Connecticut)

Created in 1989 in the USA, The Governor’s Prevention Partnership is a not-for-profit partnership between state government and business leaders with a mission to keep Connecticut’s youth safe, successful and drug-free. The Partnership provides leadership and services to help schools, communities, youth organizations, colleges and businesses create and sustain quality programs in five core areas:

  • Increasing the number of youth who have the caring support of a mentor (some useful information for working with Corporate groups and establishing mentoring programs can be found here)
  • Helping local communities build coalitions and programs to address underage drinking
  • Helping schools develop and implement effective drug and violence prevention programming including Student Assistance Programs, bullying, conflict resolution and peer mediation programs
  • Helping colleges/universities address issues and behavior related to alcohol abuse
  • Delivering anti-drug messages through the media
  • Giving parents the skills they need to protect their children against drugs and other problems

The Governor’s Prevention Partnership works in collaboration with local, regional and statewide providers to maximize youth development programming without duplicating services. The Partnership’s programs affect children in virtually every community in the state.