The Power of Relationships: How and Why American Adults Step up to Mentor the Nation's Youth

With the release of this comprehensive new report, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership has provided the mentoring field with important new data about the scope of mentoring in the United States. This report advances what is understood about mentoring in several important ways. First, it moves beyond a simple head count to explore Americans' motivations for, obstacles to, and beliefs about mentoring. Second, unlike the many surveys that focus on youth's perspectives, this study explores the perspectives of adult mentors (as well as adults who do not mentor). In doing so, it provides a depth of new understanding and a clear path toward fuller, more satisfactory engagement with caring adults. Of particular importance, this report contains the most comprehensive survey of informal mentors to date. Given that far more adults serve as natural, informal mentors, and efforts--by both MENTOR and MENTOR's Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring--to support, enlist, and train informal mentors are underway, this information is sorely needed. [This report was produced with Pacific Market Research.]