Youth Initiated Mentoring in Social Work: Sustainable Solution for Youth with Complex Needs?

Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) is a new approach in child and family services, in which collaboration with natural mentors from within the social network of the young person is central. Young people themselves choose a mentor from within their environment. This mentor is their confidential advisor and he or she stands up for the interests of the young person. In addition, the YIM is a cooperation partner for parents and social workers. Research into the long-term effects is lacking, therefore, in the current study, a total of 24 (former) YIMs were interviewed (14 women, 10 men). The ages of the YIMs range from 23 to 78 years (M = 50, SD = 13.7). On average, the YIMs know the young people for a periode of 9 years and 6 months (SD = 5.1), family members not included. The YIM program were closed 6 months to 4 years ago (M = 2.3, SD = 1.12). The majority of YIMs keep in touch with the young person (75%) and currently most young persons lives at home or in within their community (79%). The YIM approach is a resilient and promising approach in social work, prerequisite that it is valued by parties involved.