1st Edition

Mentoring for Young People in Care and Leaving Care Theory, Policy and Practice

    164 Pages
    by Routledge

    164 Pages
    by Routledge

    Mentoring for Young People in Care and Leaving Care offers a rich exploration of the theory, research and practice relating to youth mentoring as a means of essential social support. Brady, Dolan and McGregor ground their work on the premise that the informal social support provided through a high-quality mentoring relationship can help young people in care to sustain positive mental health, cope with stress and fulfil their potential through adolescence and into adulthood.

    It provides an up-to-date synthesis of research findings in relation to natural mentoring, formal mentoring and youth-initiated mentoring for children in care and explores the challenges and considerations relating to practice in this area. Illustrated with the details of original research with care-experienced young people, it offers much-needed insight into how young people interpret and make sense of their experiences in care and of mentoring.

    Written to be accessible by those with limited knowledge of youth mentoring, this timely publication will be essential reading for academics, policy makers and practitioners in the fields of adolescent development, social care, social work and youth work.

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    Chapter 2: Children in Care and Leaving Care: Issues and challenges

    Chapter 3: Natural and youth-initiated mentoring

    Chapter 4: Formal Youth Mentoring for Children in Care and Leaving Care

    Chapter 5: Introducing the Current Study

    Chapter 6: Young people’s Perspectives on the Benefits of Mentoring

    Chapter 7: Youth perspectives on relational dynamics and quality in mentoring relationships

    Chapter 8: Mentoring for Young People in Care: Mess ages for policy and practice

    Biography

    Dr Bernadine Brady is a Lecturer and Senior Researcher at the UNESCO Child & Family Research Centre, NUI, Galway.

    Professor Pat Dolan is Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI, Galway and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement.

    Professor Caroline McGregor is Professor at the School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway with lead responsibility for the discipline of social work.  She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre.