Youth As Change-Agents for Violence Prevention: A Process Evaluation of a Cross-Age Mentoring Program in Chicago's High-Violence, High-Poverty Communities

Background and purpose: This research occurs in the context of a funded project creating cross-age mentoring services and carrying out a control-group study of service impact with youth in high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods in a Midwest urban setting. In high-poverty, high-crime urban settings, social networks of criminally-engaged adults victimize youth and recruit them into violence. Less is known about how to build positive social networks with youth to prevent violence engagement. This presentation describes a process evaluation of a program that has been effective in recruiting and engaging high school students of color to be change-agents by mentoring elementary and middle school students in four high-violence, high-crime communities. Specifics of program implementation are described so that participants will be able to engage high-risk youth in mentoring community children, trouble-shoot obstacles, and have strategies for effectively building positive social networks.

Methods: The program engaged 142 youth mentors (ages 16-20), and 159 mentees (ages 10 – 14), in four high-poverty, high-violence communities. Data collected for the process evaluation include detailed field notes carried out by staff, debriefing forms completed by youth mentors, debriefings carried out with youth mentees, and peer-to-peer interviews in which youth described to each other the meaning of the program to them, and its strengths and weaknesses, so services could be optimized.

Findings: Overall the program was effective in carrying out cross-age mentoring services at 9 different sites located in 4 communities. The challenges the program encountered included continual exposure of youth to community violence, which traumatized youth, necessitating the inclusion of a mental health component. Mentors found their mentees’ unwanted behavior (including some incitements to violence) to be challenging, and needed support in planning caregiving responses. Program longevity was challenged because community violence made youth fearful of travelling across gang lines or going to places, such as libraries or bus stops, where shootings had occurred. Some community partners seemed to suffer from secondary trauma, creating additional challenges for program administration. Program leaders had to assiduously reach out to parents and school administrators to help youth attend regularly, as community disorganization led to difficulties with follow-through. Youths’ poverty made it essential to provide stipends, food, clothing, hygiene supplies, school supplies, and transportation funds. The program curricula focus on coping and building relationship skills needed, which also include managing acute stress, trauma and developing positive racial identity. Youth overall found the program deeply meaningful, and many expressed their intent to continue their mentoring and mutual support relationships when the program ended.

Conclusions: Creating positive social networks with profoundly disadvantaged youth as change-agents in violence-plagued communities is a tall order, but do-able and meaningful for the youth. High-poverty, high-violence communities are greatly under-resourced, so programming needs to include substantial supplementary resource provision, including cultural-specific curricula and mental health care for trauma.