Forming Relationships with Adults: Mentors, Volunteers, and Facilitators

One of the most important aspects of After School programs is the opportunity for youth to form meaningful and stable relationships with adults. Many times, schools do not provide youth with enough opportunities to form meaningful relationships with adults. Many kids feel as though their teachers do not understand them. Also, the high turnover rate in many low-income schools debilitates youth from being able to form sustainable relationships with adults. After school programs enable youth to gain one on one interractions with adults in ways that enable them to trust adults but also gain important social skills. However, where do these adults come from? What makes mentors ineffective when working with kids? Many people argue that the mentors need to be representative of the culture of the youth participating in the program. There is a movement towards involving community members as integral parts of after school programs. Also, many times after school programs use surrounding universities to provide a strong volunteer base for mentors and tutors in after school programs. This enables students in college to share the education they gain in college with a low income community and share knowledge that will help youth move towards the communities they envision for themselves.
The major problem in regards to mentors, many times is the lack of adequate training. For example, college students may go into an afterschool background without any historical knowledge or background of the community in which they are situated. This automatically puts a barrier on productive conversations and relationships. Also, if community members have had their own negative experiences with education, this may add onto the negative perceptions youth will have of their educational setting.
A very effective method used in after school programs is to train peer leaders, so older youth can serve as positive role models to the younger peers in their community. Not only does this enable youth to gain meaningful relationships with eachother, but it strengthens the social fabric of the community.