At the time Critical Mentoring was published in 2017 we were saying the names of young people like Tamir Rice and Mike Brown, to name a few. Now, we are saying the names of young people like Ma’Khia Bryant and Daunte Wright. Our young people are still being asked to thrive in environments that are toxic.
It has been said “nothing about us without us” and that statement is apropos for mentoring programs doing critical work. This means making space for youth voices and giving them meaningful opportunities to build programs that work best for them.
Since mentoring is concerned with the growth and development of young people, building youth voices, power, and choice should be an essential aspect of that work. We must create leadership opportunities for them to lead and support their leadership development.
At the time Critical Mentoring was published in 2017 we were saying the names of young people like Tamir Rice and Mike Brown, to name a few. Now, we are saying the names of young people like Ma’Khia Bryant and Daunte Wright. Our young people are still being asked to thrive in environments that are toxic.
It has been said “nothing about us without us” and that statement is apropos for mentoring programs doing critical work. This means making space for youth voices and giving them meaningful opportunities to build programs that work best for them.
Since mentoring is concerned with the growth and development of young people, building youth voices, power, and choice should be an essential aspect of that work. We must create leadership opportunities for them to lead and support their leadership development.
About This Resource
This supplement came as a result of conversations and “conspirations” between Dr. Elizabeth Santiago, formerly the chief program officer for MENTOR, and Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan, chief visionary officer of Youth Mentoring Action Network, and author of Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide. We recognized that it was imperative to establish an accessible, working collection of information and ideas that constitute a framework for critical mentoring. The objective was to provide organizations across the field of mentoring with resources, scholarship, and practices that respond to the acute and enduring struggles of marginalized youth — and to equip them to do so. Rather than creating a static document, we wanted to publish this living, breathing website to increase access, encourage growth and dynamicity, and enable crowdsourcing. This resource was created in community with comrades who have implemented, researched, or experienced critical mentoring. We hope to collaboratively expand and adjust this resource as the concept and practice of critical mentoring involves new and different people, spaces, and ideas.
It has been an honor to work alongside researchers like Mike Garringer, Bernadette Sánchez, Bianca Baldridge, and Rod Watts who could delve into and create the academic scholarship we all need to better understand the concept of critical mentoring and why we need to engage it in our work.
It was also amazing to work alongside practitioners like Marcus Strother, Sadiq Ali, and Stacey Thompson, who could speak to how they have institutionalized critical mentoring practices and could work alongside us to think about what it should look like in the future.
Torie Weiston-Serdan
Thanks to Our Funder
This work would not be possible without the generous investment of the Citi Foundation. We thank them for their support of our work and their belief in mentoring as a tool for equity and a more just world.