Page 50 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

However, studies have concluded that young people involved in mentoring
are likely to experience a range of benefits, including improvements in their
relationships with family and peers, an increase in their overall communication
skills with others and a reduction in anti-social behaviour (Blaber and
Glazebrook, 2006). Some feel less isolated and more resilient and therefore
better able to tackle setbacks in life. Others benefit from increased options and
opportunities for participation. The Nightingale project demonstrated that
mentoring programmes can provide positive influences for younger people who
do not have a good support system available to them, increasing their self-
confidence and self-esteem. The Danish Rise and follow your dreams project
indicated that peer mentoring gives young people the opportunity to share ideas
and concerns with other young people whom they feel they can relate to better
than teachers, guidance counsellors and other adults. One of the project’s
success factors is the diversity of their mentors, with most of the participants
coming from different nationalities and ethnic minority groups. They also
appreciate having mentors relatively close to their age because young people
tend value mentors who share and are willing to discuss similar backgrounds and
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experiences Philip, 2004 ( ).
Mentoring projects run by NGOs in Hungary, and subsequently the Roma
education fund in countries such as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Romania and Serbia have shown that mentors can play a key role in promoting
Roma students’ academic performance, by providing additional support during
regular extra-curricular sessions. This support can start from a basis of
encouragement and going over what the student has learnt in class, to make
sure they have fully understood the lesson and its content; it then progresses into
other areas such as information, advice and guidance concerning career
opportunities. An evaluation of a mentoring and scholarship programme in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, funded by the Roma education fund,
found that mentoring has positive effects on the retention, achievements and
transition rate of Roma secondary school students. Access to mentors has
lowered early school leaving rates, the number of students with lower grades has
decreased, and there are more Roma students achieving good results in all of
the participating secondary schools (Roma education fund,
www.romaeducationfund.hu/). The retention rate of first year Roma students, who
are traditionally the most at risk of dropping out of education, has risen from
below 85 % to just under 100 %.

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( ) Mentoring for vulnerable young people. Available from Internet:
http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/324.pdf [cited 1.3.2010].

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