From 2006 to 2008, youth mentoring in Massachusetts has experienced an 11 percent increase of youth served, based on programs who completed both the inaugural 2006 and recently-released 2008 Mass Mentoring Counts surveys.
Mass Mentoring Counts is a biennial statewide youth mentoring survey, conducted for MMP by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, which reveals mentoring trends, gaps and program practices.
Other key statewide findings from Mass Mentoring include:
- 135 programs reported serving 19,717 youth in formal mentoring relationships, a 17 percent increase since the 2006 survey
- Programs reporting mentee counts in both 2006 and 2008 served more than 1,600 additional youth, an 11 percent increase
- Approximately 2/3 of programs are site-based
- The vast majority of programs expect matches to last at least one school year
- 42 percent of programs set match commitment at 12 months. 79 percent require weekly meetings
- More older youth are being mentored: mentees in the 15-19 year old age group represented 31 percent, while, the proportion of 5-9 year-olds dropped to 23 percent
- 42 percent of mentoring programs identified their primary goal is to increase the youth's self-esteem, and 37 percent identified it as providing education and academic support to mentees.
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