NRPA Launches Mentoring in Parks and Rec During National Mentoring Month

In line with the January observance of National Mentoring Month, the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is initiating Mentoring in Parks and Rec: Connecting Communities, Cultivating Leaders. According to NRPA, local park and recreation agencies provide many opportunities for youth to engage in positive social experiences and form strong, healthy connections with adults. Through this initiative, the association plans to support local park and recreation agencies in their efforts to build effective and evidence-based mentorship programs that connect youth with caring and compassionate mentors while strengthening connections across communities.

Accoring to NRPA, "[m]entoring plays a key role in preventing young people from engaging in risky and harmful behaviors, while keeping them engaged in positive activities that build confidence, empower decision making, and enhance relationships with peers, adults and community. At-risk youth who have a mentor are 55 percent more likely to enroll in college and 52 percent less likely to skip a day of school than their peers. Youth with mentors also are 46 percent less likely than their peers to start using drugs. Unfortunately, one in three young people in the United States reaches age 19 without a mentor of any kind. This includes the nine million at-risk youth who are missing critical support and connections that mentoring can provide."

"Park and recreation agencies are well-suited to help close this gap by offering one-on-one and group mentoring programs that support and nurture youth. As agencies continue to evolve into hubs for health, recreation and social-emotional development services, park and recreation professionals often fill this critical role as mentors and role models, especially for high-risk youth."

Through Mentoring in Parks and Rec, NRPA plans to work with partners to develop resources that agencies and their staff can use to develop or expand programs and help youth gain access to quality mentors.

To support local park and recreation agencies in the development and implementation of effective mentoring programs, NRPA has launched Mentoring in Parks and Rec, a website designed to provide access to numerous resources, including:

• NRPA's Youth Mentoring Framework
• Mentoring to Address Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Resource and research database:
  • The National Mentoring Partnership's Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring,
  • Family engagement resources,
  • Law enforcement engagement resources, and
  • Substance use prevention resources.

These resources are partially funded through a three-year program (grant #2018-JU-FX-0036) supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a component of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.