Further Developing and Enhancing the National Mentoring Resource Center

MENTOR will continue to enhance a comprehensive website with mentoring resources and engaging tools for practitioners, and convene an expert Research Board that reviews the evidence base for specific program models and practices, while continuing to deliver high quality TA to OJJDP grantees and the mentoring field at scale. MENTOR will also provide innovative opportunities for programs to improve practices that promote racial equity, deepen the NMRC’s commitment to culturally-specific mentoring organizations and information, and address the specific needs of OJJDP grantees thorough customized learning and engagement strategies.

MENTOR will partner with OJJDP to deliver an interactive, practitioner-friendly NMRC website and its comprehensive catalogue of reviews and resources, including OJJDP grantee contributions, a grantee geomap, smart tools, a practitioner blog, discussion boards and multimedia. It will raise awareness and continue the development of mentoring best practices through evidence reviews, measurement tools, a Research Symposium, professional learning communities, research-to-practice videos, and a youth-centered study of the mentoring experiences of BIPOC girls. Finally, it will deliver online and in-person trainings on topics of need, a new grantee orientation in partnership with OJJDP, and 17,000 hours of customized TA for grantees and other programs across the nation with a focus on equity an inclusion, substance misuse, and juvenile justice-involved youth.

Together, MENTOR and its partners possess the collective vision, expertise and capacity to deliver a successful and efficient OJJDP NMRC. Limited activities that may meet the DOJ regulatory definition of research will be confirmed through consultation with OJJDP to ensure appropriate approvals. Progress toward goals will be measured systematically using multiple methods, including web analytics and pre- and post-surveys measuring knowledge gained. In partnership with OJJDP, MENTOR and its partners will build the capacity of mentoring organizations to deliver the quality mentoring relationships that can transform outcomes for America’s youth.