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For over 90 years, the Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation has been helping the underprivileged children of American stay off the streets and keep their heads in the books. Not only do they help with all sorts of educational needs, but it is proven that they lower the rates of pregnancy, inner-city youth delinquency, dropouts, and other negative life situations (Blechman, 1992). In fact, these lowered rates can be traced all the way back to the first Big Brothers agency in 1902.

Royse, David. "Mentoring High-Risk Minority Youth: Evaluation of the Brothers Project." Mentoring High Risk Minority Youth: Evaluation Of The Brothers Project. Questia. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .


Even though David Royse's article is not complimenting the good parts about Big Brothers Big Sisters, his information seems really helpful and I will most definitely be using this in my final paper. LOVE.

Annotated Bibliography

"Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City." Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City: The Power to Change Lives. Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . The official Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City website should be very helpful. I have already found some useful facts that I will most definitely be including in my research paper.

"Does Mentoring Work?" Evaluation Review. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . This website questions whether or not mentoring works, and it includes valuable information that I can use when writing my research paper. It talks about the cold, hard, facts about the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, and how statistics show that it has generally created positive results.

Dubois, David L., and Helen A. Neville. "Youth Mentoring: Investigation of Relationship Characteristics and Perceived Benefits." Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . This article talks about the mentors of Big Brothers Big Sisters and the ratings of what they actually do.

Freedman, Marc. "The Kindness of Strangers: Reflections on the Mentoring Movement." ERIC – World’s Largest Digital Library of Education Literature. Public/Private Ventures, 399 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2178., 1991. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . This is an essay that discusses implications of mentoring and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program as a whole.

"Start Something for a Child Today-Big Brothers Big Sisters." Big Brothers Big Sisters. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . This is the actual Big Brothers Big Sisters website. I plan on getting most of my statistics and explanatory information from this website, mainly because it is the most credible since it is their official website.

Possible Options to Explore

http://erx.sagepub.com/content/22/3/403.short

Books to Read

Title: An Evaluation of Parental Assessment of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program in New York City

Authors: Frecknall, Peter; Luks, Alan.

Description: Parents rated impact of Big Brother/Big Sister program on children along variables of school attendance, grades, family relationship, friendship, self-esteem, staying out of trouble, being responsible, frequency of contact, and length of time in program. Although children were rated as benefiting significantly from program, children's frequency of contact did not have significant effect on outcome measures.

Research from the "Handbook of Youth Mentoring"

"...The Handbook explores not only mentoring that occurs within formal programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, but also examines natural mentoring relationships that youth establish with adults outside of such programs. Key Features Offers the first scholarly rigorous and comprehensive examination of the field of youth mentoring Opens with a Foreword by Gail Manza, President of the National Mentoring Partnership Includes contributions by leading U.S. and international experts in the field of youth mentoring Provides an Introduction by the volume editors to frame the various chapters and themes presented in the book Uses an accessible, nontechnical style of presentation, with detailed discussions of implications for practice and public policy Examines special populations of youth, such as juvenile offenders, pregnant teens, gifted and talented students, abused and neglected youth, and youth with disabilities The Handbook is sure to affect the lives of current and future generations of youth by helping shape mentoring practices, research, and policies throughout the world. It is an essential resource for scholars, professionals, and practitioners in the fields of psychology, education, human development and family studies, and human services. The Handbook is also an excellent addition to any academic library."

Starting to Find Research

This research examined associations among characteristics of relationships formed in two community-based mentoring programs and their linkages with ratings of perceived benefits for youth. Volunteer mentors in a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program completed a questionnaire on a monthly basis for a period of six months, whereas undergraduate students serving as mentors through a service-learning course completed a questionnaire on one occasion only. Mentors' ratings of emotional closeness with youth were found to be associated with reports of fewer contacts with program staff and relationship obstacles in each program. Reports of more extensive amounts of mentor-youth contact and feelings of closeness were, in turn, each associated with ratings of greater benefits for youth. Findings also indicated a tendency for mentors in longer term relationships in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program to perceive greater benefits for youth, but this was evident only after controlling for a countervailing tendency of mentors in these relationships to report spending less time with youth. Implications for the design and evaluation of youth mentoring programs are discussed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6629(199705)25:3%3C227::AID-JCOP1%3E3.0.CO;2-T/abstract

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This essay discusses the roots, current shapes, and social and operational implications of mentoring young people in poverty. After an introductory first section on mentoring and the new voluntarism, Section II, "Recurring Fervor," notes recent increased interest in mentoring and traces the early manifestations of mentoring to 19th Century "friendly visiting" campaigns. Section III, "From Mythology to Policy," describes various cultural permutations of the role of the mentor. Section IV, "The New Wave of Mentoring," describes currently operating mentor programs at the state, local, and private levels. Section V, "Exploring Mentoring's Rise," traces the current social causes for the mentoring movement's rise. Section VI, "Great Expectations," looks critically at the movement's great fervor and high expectations. Section VII, "A Modest Intervention," explores actual possible accomplishments through a review of research results and insights from mentors themselves. Section VIII, "Mentoring's Crossroads," considers the gap between enthusiasm for the concept and the modest results and current lack of infrastructure. Section IX, "Implications of Mentoring," discusses the long-term importance of the movement for poor and disadvantaged youth and its implications for raising other societal issues. A list of 128 notes arranged by chapter heading is included.

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED341749&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED341749

My Charity

The charity that I chose was Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. I chose this charity because I think it is a really good cause and it pulls on my heart strings just to read about it. I think that would be the best thing if you really care about the charity because you will have something to motivate you.