Background:

Definition.

Mentoring is defined as a sustained relationship between a youth and an adult or an older youth. Through continued involvement, the adult or older student offers support, guidance, and assistance as the younger person goes through a difficult period, faces new challenges, faces academic challenges, or works through family and other social problems. In particular, where parents are either unavailable or unable to provide responsible guidance for their children, mentors can play a critical role.

Growth in Mentoring Programs.

The number of mentoring programs has grown dramatically in recent years. This popularity results in part from compelling testimonials by people - youth and adults alike - who have themselves benefited from the positive influence of an older person who helped them endure social, academic, family, or personal crises.

How does a Mentoring Program Work?

Mentoring programs are established to match a suitable adult or older youth - the mentor - with a younger person. Potential mentors are recruited from various sources including high schools, colleges and universities, and professional and religious communities, as well as neighborhood citizens. Nominations for mentors are sought formally through a structured program and recruiting process and informally through flyers, posters, mailings, and word-of-mouth. Appropriately matching mentors with younger students is a key component of most programs. Matching can be done formally and informally through interviews, personal profiles, comparative interest inventories, and get-acquainted sessions. In some cases, mentoring occurs in a group setting in which groups of younger students are matched with a small group of older students or adults.

Research.

While research on the effects of mentoring is scarce, some studies and program evaluations do support positive claims. In general terms, findings indicate that mentored students have much higher career goals, suggesting that the mentoring process may have triggered a greater concern for the future among the mentored students. Results have also shown that mentored students were doing better academically, on average, than students without mentors.

Summary:

Western Washington University must establish a mentoring pilot project in partnership with a community or technical college identified by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The goals of the mentoring program include: (1) encouraging elementary students to complete high school and pursue college; (2) providing positive role models; and (3) developing a model that is scalable. The pilot project must be implemented within existing resources.

In establishing the pilot project, institutions must:

recruit college students to serve as mentors and identify an elementary school or schools;

develop a curriculum to train mentors;

solicit grants, awards, and gifts;

develop appropriate outcome measures;

provide community outreach and publicity of the program; and

submit two reports to the Legislature; the first preliminary report is due by December 1, 2010, and the final report is due December 1, 2011.

Votes on Final Passage:

House	95
Senate	47	(Senate amended)
House	98	(House concurred)