RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Man Up: Recruiting and Retaining African-American Male Mentors

Link to the Original report: http://www.urbanyouth.org/docs/AfricanAmericanMalePerspectivesOnMentoring_08.pdf

Male Mentors – Playing Father Figures, Raising Future Fathers

Programmes like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America have long sought to leverage mentoring as a means of giving youth, especially disadvantaged youth, access to the nurturance, support, and role modelling of an older, more experienced adult. This objective is particularly significant for male youth with absent fathers.

In the U.S., African-Americans are one of several communities where recruiting mentors for male youth is both a challenge and critical need. In addition to various social and economic challenges, the African-American community also faces the problem of fatherlessness, arising from increasing teen births (68.8%), the growth of single parent households (56%), and a rising number of grandparents raising children.

It was in response to these challenges that Essence Cares, a U.S.-based national initiative to recruit and retain one million mentors, was launched in 2007. The initiative focuses on increasing awareness around mentoring as a viable intervention for African-American youth as well as promoting mentoring initiatives in communities across the country.

The initiative’s emphasis on recruiting African-American males to mentor other African-American males addresses two points: firstly, that issues of fatherlessness are critically related to the health of African-American male youth, and secondly, that mentoring is an important response to the multiple challenges faced by the African-American community, and particularly helpful in raising men who will eventually be loving and responsible fathers.

Study on Men’s Perceptions of Mentoring

To support this initiative, a study of 576 African-American males aged 21 and older was conducted in 2007, to explore their perceptions of mentorship of African-American males.

The survey examined three questions:

• Why is it important for African-American men to get involved in mentoring?

• What are the barriers that impact African-American males ability to serve as mentors?

• In what ways can programmes promote mentoring to African-American males?

Telephone surveys were also conducted with community-based mentoring programmes across the country to examine programmatic and funding considerations related to the above questions.

Key Findings

Barriers for getting involved in mentoring programmes

Respondents identified several key barriers that impact recruitment, retention and outreach efforts:

• The need for mentorship themselves, or the lack of male role models in their lives, which make it difficult for them to see what they can offer as mentors;

• The belief that they need to have money before they can be a mentor;

• Time constraints from work and family commitments;

• Lack of motivation and knowledge about the benefits of mentoring, including concerns about the rebelliousness of African-American male teens, doubt that mentoring would impact this group, and discomfort dealing with them;

• Previous challenges with the law, for some respondents;

• Mistrust of government-funded programmes;

• Belief that only white-collar professional African-American men can be mentors;

• Inadequate training and ongoing support to mentors; and

• Inability to find mentoring programmes in local communities.

Recommendations for optimising mentoring for disadvantaged groups

The insights from the study also point to several good practices for mentor recruitment and mentoring programmes focused on African-American males. Strategies that can similarly be applied to other disadvantaged communities are highlighted below:

• Social marketing, through a national mentoring campaign that targets African-American mentors and spotlights successful mentoring within the community, including Public Service Announcements, marketing materials highlighting African-American men, local media (community-based newsletters, newspapers), and technology-based networks (Listservs, Web sites, podcasting and text messaging);

• Partnerships with music stations to promote mentoring, given the value of local hip hop and R&B in reaching young, African-American males;

• Effective mentoring training and follow-up to support mentors, particularly intensive training focused on personal development, self-reflection and positive manhood development;

• Non-traditional models that recruit and retain (non-violent) ex-offenders as mentors, given these men have “street credibility” and a passion for working with African-American males, even if they need specialised training and support to become effective mentors;

• More diverse options for mentors and volunteers, including group and workplace mentoring, given many men’s interest in mentoring and volunteering but inability to commit to one-on-one mentoring;

• Staffing and volunteer environments that welcome men, including male staff and volunteers, and a physical space that sends a balanced gender message; and

• National Mentoring Month to kick off major recruitment initiatives, with such initiatives representing partnerships with state-wide and local mentoring efforts, and highlighting the importance of African-Americans serving as mentors.

• Research and evaluation of various mentoring programmes, including group mentoring, to determine their effectiveness.

Conclusion

While the problem of fatherlessness differs from country to country, the findings from this study are nonetheless helpful in the Singapore context. As the national Dads for Life movement and its partners explore how to reach children, families, and communities who are most in need, male mentoring programmes – and the lessons from similar initiatives overseas – may offer new approaches to fathering the “fatherless”.

About the Author: The Dads for Life Resource Team comprises local content writers and experts, including psychologists, counsellors, educators and social service professionals, dedicated to developing useful resources for dads.