By sharing experience and expertise, a mentor can help your teen to prepare for their future by helping them learn more about a career, or themselves. They can connect them to networks, help them understand their potential, develop skills, and connect them to new opportunities.
Research shows that youth mentoring by non-parent adults…
- Models positive social skills and facilitates interpersonal connections beyond family.
- Helps young people interpret and manage life challenges, including relationships with peers and parents.
- Facilitates meaningful conversations that boost cognitive skills and provides perspective.
- Strengthens self-regulation, one’s ability to manage emotions and impulses—to think before acting.
- Promotes identity development, a key task of adolescence, through modeling core qualities that contribute to human thriving, like empathy, curiosity, resourcefulness, and resilience.
- Opens doors to new ways of thinking, resources, and opportunities.
- Fosters self-efficacy—a belief in oneself.
Finding a Mentor
Young people agree that mentoring relationships are most successful when mentors don’t see themselves merely as teachers, advisors, and role models, and instead considered themselves listeners, encouragers, supporters, and co-learners.
Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD
You can find a mentor for your child informally; teacher, relative, neighbour, co-worker, youth leader, coach, after-school activity, community organization, or through your own networks. Or formally through a mentoring organization.
Mentoring Organizations
Many young people find themselves in vulnerable situations and facing adversities such as mental health issues, family violence, identity issues or poor living conditions, which put these youth at risk of not reaching their full potential.
Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors advise and challenge these young people, act as their champions, provide greater consistency in their lives, connect them to broader experiences, opportunities and networks, and provide safe, nonjudgmental environments in which the child or youth can confide anything.
For Black Youth
Black Mentorship Inc. (BMI) strengthens leadership opportunities for ALL people by connecting Black youths, professionals and entrepreneurs at different stages of personal and professional growth with experienced mentors through a unique mentoring program.
For Refugee and Immigrant Youth
Bridge Builders Mentorship (BBM) works to bridge the gaps in education for refugee and immigrant youth by promoting equity and accessibility through 1-on-1 academic tutoring and mentorship, assistance with scholarship and university applications and academic, career, study and lifestyle workshops. Access BBM Resources HERE.
For Female-Identifying Youth
GEM Mentorship for Girls believes that women mentoring girls is essential to fostering the success of the next generation and critical to creating gender equity in Canada. It focuses on mentoring girls in high school facing socio-economic barriers, helping them achieve their academic and career potential.
Becoming a Mentor
Being a youth mentor is different from being a role model, although good mentors are usually both. Role models serve as inspiration to children. They are not necessarily available to support them and often do not live close by. Learn about the five qualities of role models that matter most to youth.
Youth mentors, on the other hand, usually know (or get to know) the young person well, sees them regularly, and encourages them through a variety of life challenges. Learn how mentors influence the development of the core compass abilities that last a lifetime.
Effective mentors influence the development of eight core abilities. Learn what they are.
You can act as an informal mentor, volunteering an a youth-serving organization, or just by being a good listener to the young people in your life and sharing your experience, expertise and stories. To formally become a mentor, contact a mentoring organization.
