Program Resources
Researching the Referral Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile Justice Settings
The Mentoring Best Practices Research Project, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), was conducted in collaboration with Global Youth Justice and the National Partnership for Juvenile Services.
Researching the Referral Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile Justice Settings: An Exploratory Analysis examines best practices for referring youth to mentoring from six juvenile justice settings: Detention, Corrections, Probation, Delinquency Court, Teen Court/Youth Court and Dependency Court. A delinquency prevention and intervention option that capitalizes on the resources of local communities and caring individuals, mentoring has emerged as a promising delinquency reduction strategy for high-risk youth. This mentoring research project researches the “referral stage” of mentoring to improve the design and delivery of mentoring services to appropriate high-risk youth, which most likely will have a favorable impact on reducing juvenile delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse, truancy and/or other problem behaviors.
Research updates, reports and resources generated from this project are available for download on this website.
Training and Technical Assistance: One-Day State Trainings
The content of this training was the result of an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-funded research grant that explored the “referral stage” of mentoring in order to improve the design and delivery of services to troubled youth and to examine how existing mentoring / juvenile justice partnerships were established and sustained.
Seventeen one-day state trainings were open to individuals and teams, including administrators and staff from: mentoring programs, Juvenile Detention, Juvenile Corrections, Juvenile Probation, Delinquency Court, Youth Court, Teen Court and Dependency Court. Training hosts were encouraged to include mentoring and juvenile justice staff from the same community as the process by which youth move through the juvenile justice system varies from one jurisdiction to another.
Learning objectives ensured that participants:
- Gained an understanding of mentoring services and the six juvenile justice settings, including related terminology and structure;
- Understood the advantages and challenges of offering mentoring services within each juvenile justice setting; and
- Understood best practices and recommendations for providing mentoring within or in partnership with each setting with a focus on the referral stage.
Training Dates and Locations
Training and Technical Assistance Resources
Exploring Mentoring Referral in Juvenile Justice Settings Webinar
Exploring Mentoring Referral in Juvenile Justice Settings Webinar This technical assistance webinar for juvenile justice and mentoring program professionals focused on how youth in Juvenile Probation, Juvenile Detention and Juvenile Corrections are referred to mentoring services. Presenters shared strategies, practices, resources and key findings from the OJJDP-funded study Researching the Referral Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile Justice Settings: An Exploratory Analysis.
PowerPoint Slides (PDF)
Technical Assistance Profiles
These technical assistance tools were designed to provide an overview of the six juvenile justice settings and the youth served, helpful answers to frequently asked questions, strategies, challenges and suggested action steps, terms and definitions and technical assistance resources.
1. Delinquency Court and Mentoring
2. Dependency Court and Mentoring
3. Teen Court/Youth Court Programs and Mentoring
4. Juvenile Corrections and Mentoring
5. Juvenile Detention and Mentoring
6. Juvenile Probation and Mentoring
Memorandums of Understanding: Resource Guides for Developing MOUs for Juvenile Justice and Mentoring Services
These technical assistance tools provide helpful information to guide the process of developing MOUs in six juvenile justice settings for mentoring services. Each guide provides policy and programmatic discussion points, tips and strategies for writing MOUs, including sample language and training and technical assistance resources.
1. Delinquency Court and Mentoring
2. Dependency Court and Mentoring
3. Teen Court/Youth Court Programs and Mentoring
4. Juvenile Corrections and Mentoring
5. Juvenile Detention and Mentoring
6. Juvenile Probation and Mentoring
Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™, Third Edition
MENTOR’s keystone publication on mentoring standards recently was updated to include the latest research and practice wisdom available to help mentoring relationships thrive and endure. 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 and enhancements, as well as a section on practical advice for building a new mentoring program or strengthening an existing one.
Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™, Third Edition Checklist for Mentoring Programs
This convenient checklist for mentoring programs includes key benchmarks and enhancements for each of the six evidence-based standards addressing mentor and mentee recruitment; screening; training; matching; monitoring and support; and closure, as well as a helpful glossary of terms.
Research Products
Referring Youth in Juvenile Justice Settings to Mentoring Programs: A Resource Compendium
This resource compendium contains a summary of key project findings from more than two dozen site visits and a national survey; six Memorandum of Understanding resource guides and profiles of the six juvenile justice settings for mentoring programs to use to better engage juvenile justice agencies; and a listing of training and technical assistance resources.