August 8, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Group Mentoring: a Study of Mentoring Groups in Three Programs, by Carla Herrera, Zoua Vang, and Lisa Y. Gale, explores programs in which volunteers interact regularly with small groups of young people in lieu of one-on-one counsel and guidance, a method that has gained popularity because organizations can use fewer volunteers while reaching more youths. This report, based on a study by Public/Private Ventures and the National Mentoring Partnership, examines group-mentoring programs of YouthFriends in Kansas City, the Los Angeles Team Mentoring Teamwork, and Be-a-Friend Big Brothers Big Sisters of Erie County, in Buffalo, N.Y., that meet for both structured and unstructured activities like educational workshops and leadership-development exercises. The findings indicate that group programs are more likely to reach out to youths from ethnic and racial minority groups and serve proportionately more African-Americans youth than do one-on-one programs.
Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 62 pages; $8.50; free for download on the Web site..
