Study Explores Capacity of Faith-Based Groups to Assist Youths

The Promise and Challenge of Mentoring High-Risk Youth: Findings From the National Faith-Based Initiative, by Shawn Bauldry and Tracey A. Hartmann, discusses a five-year project that explored the potential of religious organizations to counsel young people who have been in trouble with the law. The report describes how two of the project’s sites in New York, as well as sites in Philadelphia and Baton Rouge, La., designed and adopted mentorship programs involving churchgoing volunteers. While not a final assessment of the effectiveness of religious groups to provide mentors, this report does draw several conclusions. For example, the authors recommend that measures be put into place to discourage proselytizing by volunteers; that religious groups can expect to recruit about 1 percent of the members of a given congregation as mentors; and that older youths require more resources and attention than younger adolescents.

Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 48 pages; $7.50.