NCJ Number
74139
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 59 Issue: 10 Dated: (December 1980) Pages: 637-644
Date Published
1980
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The use of volunteer advisors to assist abusing parents is discussed; such mentoring programs are described as beneficial to both volunteers and parents.
Abstract
Child abuse programs throughout the country are successfully using volunteers in one-to-one relationships with clients to improve parental functioning and to prevent the removal of children from their own homes. Mentors are usually 8 to 15 years older than the clients and of the same sex. They act as teachers and advisors by providing a positive role model and by easing the transition of their usually immature clients into the responsibilities of adult life. Intended as periods of transition, most mentoring relationships last from 6 months to 3 or 4 years and can be of varying intensities depending on the needs of both parties. Mentoring programs are effective in changing the behavioral patterns of abusing parents, but they are also satisfying to the volunteers by stimulating inner growth and self-actualization. By preventing the stagnation and self-absorption that frequently threatens middle-age adults, the program eases the transition of the volunteers into old age. The use of mentoring relationships, which has many precedents in family, academic, and religious life, also provides an answer to the staff limitations and growing caseloads of child protection agencies. Planners should be aware of the following factors when designing the monitoring program: (1) volunteers should be at least several years older than clients; (2) volunteers must have the need to be needed and the need to care; and (3) volunteers should have skills, or should be helped to develop skills, which the client can admire and emulate. The article includes a short bibliography.