Topic: Mentoring: The evidence for building resilience with children and young people – just how strong is it? Kim Aumann and Lindsay Hill, University of Brighton

Session summary: We know that having a view to the future, the ability to reflect on your life situation and negotiate services and support at times of trouble, helps to build resilience. Mentoring is frequently considered an effective route to launching these capabilities with children and young people. Can it be that simple?

Join the debate:
– Hear the proposition FOR, presented by Kim Aumann (Director Amaze Research and Training, Visiting Research Fellow, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Brighton).
– And listen to the proposition AGAINST, presented by Lindsay Hill (Senior Lecturer, Applied Social Science, University of Brighton).

Vote for the strongest argument, award a snickers chocolate bar to the loser, and join in the discussion!
– What can we learn from the evidence?
– Does mentoring help to build resilience? If so, how and if not, why not?
– Are there particular ingredients needed to make it work?
– Do mentors get more out of mentoring than mentorees?

These are just a few of the questions we hope to unpick with YOUR help. Register for the Forum, and we’ll send you a couple of research articles that we hope you will read before attending. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you have experience of being mentored or have run a programme yourself? All ideas, experiences, comments and views welcome – but no throwing of wet sponges please!

Reading: The articles for this forum are:
1. Rhodes, J.E., & Lowe, S. (2008). Youth mentoring and resilience. Child Care in Practice, 14, 211-224.
2. Colley, H. (2006).  Mentoring for young people not in education, employment or training: a ‘NEET’ solution, but to whose problems?  Paper commissioned by the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training.
3. Osterling, K. L., & Hines, A. M. (2006). Mentoring adolescent foster youth: promoting resilience during developmental transitions. Child & Family Social Work, 11(3), 242-253.
4. Brown, W. (2004). Resiliency and the mentoring factor. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 13(2), 75-79.
5. Beltman, S., & MacCallum, J. (2006). Mentoring and the development of resilience: An Australian perspective. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 8, 17-28.

This session took place on Tuesday 20 March 2012.

The Resilience Forum is for ANYBODY (with a pulse!) involved with or interested in resilience research!

 

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