Handbook of Youth Mentoring

With the support of a growing array of not-for-profit organizations, corporations, and government initiatives, mentoring programs now touch the lives of millions of youth each year. Countless more youth are impacted by mentoring relationships that develop through informal contacts between adults and young persons in schools, extracurricular activities, neighborhoods, and other settings. Handbook of Youth Mentoring addresses the need for a scholarly and comprehensive synthesis of current theory, research, and practice in the field of youth mentoring. Leading experts in the field, offer critical and informative analyses of the full spectrum of topics that are essential to advancing our understanding of the principles for effective mentoring of young people. The Handbook explores not only mentoring that occurs within formal programs such as 'Big Brothers Big Sisters' (very popular in the US), but also examines natural mentoring relationships that youth establish with adults outside of such programs. The Handbook is sure to affect the lives of current and future generations of youth by helping shape mentoring practices, research, and policies throughout the world.