NCJ Number
225937
Date Published
2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents the advantages of involving college students in the socialization of at-risk girls, the use of college mentoring classes as intervention tools, issues in the development and structure of college mentoring classes, and the types of activities in which mentors engage at-risk girls; typical responses to their mentoring experience are presented from both the mentor and ‘mentee’.
Abstract
One way to implement mentoring programs for at-risk girls is to involve college students. This experience is particularly useful to criminal justice students as they prepare to enter professional occupations within the criminal and juvenile justice systems. College mentoring classes can provide an opportunity to link academic with community agency and criminal justice systems in the real world of at-risk girls. Effective mentoring programs can reduce problem behaviors, reduce substance abuse, and help at-risk girls overcome personal and societal obstructions. The most effective type of mentor is one who acts as a “muse” who listens to and validates the feelings and experiences of otherwise isolated girls. Mentors find that at-risk girls’ lives are marked by instability, family histories of criminal behavior, inattentive parents, isolation, or relations with dysfunctional friends and criminal boyfriends. The experience of mentoring provides mentors with insights into what is needed for delinquent girls to make positive changes in their lives. The purpose of this chapter is to present the benefits of a mentoring program for at-risk girls through the development and implementation of college mentoring classes, mentor and mentee responses to and impact from participating in the mentoring program, and recommendations for working with at-risk girls developed by mentors. References