In Spring 2009, the Indiana Youth Institute and the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP)
conducted a statewide mentoring assessment in order to understand the extent to which formal mentoring
was occurring in Indiana.

For the purposes of the assessment, “formal mentoring programs” were defined as those programs at which:

• Mentors were matched with one ore more youth for a sustained period of time; and

• Mentors met with mentees on an ongoing regular basis.

Of the 142 contacts, CEEP and IYI completed interviews with representatives of 77 programs.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Number of Youth Served Through Indiana’s Mentoring Programs

The mentoring organizations interviewed served a total of 16,440 youth in Indiana.
Seven of the organizations served 600 or more youth during their last full year of programming.
Additionally, the mentoring programs interviewed coordinated a total of 11,484 mentors who
participated in their programs. The results of the interviews further showed that these organizations
served 64 counties throughout Indiana. The counties served by the greatest number of mentoring
programs were Marion, Lake, and Hamilton. Of all counties currently served by a mentoring program,
66% were served by only one mentoring program.

Program Delivery Models of Indiana’s Mentoring Programs

Mentoring programs were asked what type of mentoring model they used to deliver programming,
with possible responses including one child/youth to one adult, group, team, and other.
The majority of those surveyed utilized the one child/youth to one adult model in their programs
while a much smaller percentage (20%) used group mentoring and 27% used team mentoring.

Goals of Indiana’s Mentoring Programs

Mentoring programs were asked to identify the primary and secondary goals of their program
by choosing from a list of responses that included the following: academic support, social/character
development, school to work preparedness, juvenile justice, and other. When reporting the primary
goal of their program, the majority stated that social/character development was their focus while
the second most commonly given response was academic support. When respondents were asked
to identify the secondary goal of their program, the majority stated that academic support was
their focus while the second most commonly given response was social/character development.

Waiting Lists for Mentoring in Indiana

As part of the interview, respondents were also asked if they currently have a waiting list for youth
to get matched with a mentor. Over half (60%) of programs reported they have a waiting list for youth.
However, slightly more than half (51%) had a waitlist with 1-25 youth.

Need for a Statewide Mentoring Partnership

When asked to indicate the extent to which there is a need for a statewide mentoring partnership,
74% of respondents reported there is a very strong need and another 19% reported there was
somewhat of a need. The remaining 7% did not answer the question or said they were not sure if there
was a need.

Respondents were also asked how a statewide mentoring partnership could best support
their program and/or their community. Respondents most frequently reported that a statewide partnership
could provide assistance with funding and resource development (68% of respondents) and public
awareness (61%). At least a third of respondents indicated that a partnership could assist with mentor
recruitment and trainings on best practice.

To review the full report, see Statewide Mentoring Assessment 2009.