Virtual mentoring has emerged in recent years as a promising way to expand the mentoring of underserved youth. In this report, the authors describe how one organization expanded its mentoring program to include a virtual option, the development and implementation of the mentoring program, and lessons learned from this experience with the goal of improvement. This report may also assist other mentoring programs that seek to adopt a similar model.

Expanding the Village of Support Through Virtual Mentoring

Evaluation of the U.S. Dream Academy Mentoring Program

Dionne Barnes-Proby, Susan Bush-Mecenas, Tara Laila Blagg, Christopher Joseph Doss, John F. Pane, Jennifer Jeffries

ResearchPublished Oct 25, 2024

Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being. In recent years, virtual mentoring has emerged as a promising way to expand the provision of mentoring. By engaging virtually, mentorship programs can mitigate typical challenges of travel time and distance between mentor and mentee. Nonetheless, there are also challenges associated with virtual mentoring, including the potential for miscommunication and possible difficulties developing deep connections.

In 2020, the U.S. Dream Academy began developing and implementing virtual and hybrid mentoring services to explore the benefits and address the challenges of virtual mentoring. As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused widespread disruption in schooling in the United States, the U.S. Dream Academy leveraged this unique opportunity to begin implementing virtual mentoring. This report describes how the U.S. Dream Academy sought to expand its mentoring program to include a virtual option. The authors summarize the development and implementation of the mentoring program and lessons learned from this experience with the goal of supporting program improvement. This report may also assist other mentoring programs that seek to adopt a similar mentoring model.

Key Findings

Design and Support Were Key for Dream to Include Virtual Mentoring

  • Dream developed a mentoring curriculum, a virtual mentoring platform, and infrastructure to address common challenges.
  • Implementing virtual mentoring also helped to systematize mentor screening and training at the national level.

Research Suggests Mentoring Benefits Are Greater for Underserved Youth—Specifically, Children of Incarcerated Parents

  • Among the 198 students who received mentoring across six Dream sites, about 28 percent of these students had an incarcerated parent.
  • Although the survey sample (69 students) was generally representative of the mentee population, Black mentees were significantly underrepresented, and White mentees were overrepresented in the elementary school sample.

Problems with Staffing at Learning Centers Affected Mentoring Program Implementation

  • During the study year (2022–2023 school year), some Dream sites experienced challenges in retaining staff and filling staff vacancies that led to some delays to starting mentorship activities.
  • Requirements for long-term commitment to implement the mentoring model affected the recruitment of mentors.

Mentoring Covered Common Topics While Curriculum Use Varied

  • Across the six sites, the most common topics of mentoring reported by students were their hopes, expectations, and goals; friends; and school/academics.
  • Most of the sites used the curriculum as designed, with modest adjustments, while others used a more-tailored approach.

Learning Centers Offered Various Support Services Alongside Mentoring

  • Students benefited from social and emotional, mental health, and academic support, while caregivers and families benefited from safety net and advocacy.
  • Mentors also benefited from personal and professional development and gaining career experience.

Recommendations

  • Programs should explore more-flexible options for curriculum implementation to allow for recruitment of mentor volunteers who are only available for short-term engagement (volunteer for a three times per week for a three- or four-month semester versus one hour per week for 12 months).
  • Programs should consider alternative staffing models that minimize the impact of turnover, such as sharing responsibilities for different aspects of program management to prevent concentration of all tasks to one coordinator and allow for the program to progress despite staff vacancies.
  • Programs should consider prioritizing the recruitment of staff and mentors with characteristics and experience that are especially relevant to students seeking mentorship.
  • Programs should engage all volunteers and Learning Center staff in training on the curriculum and provide access to the curriculum to create more alignment in programs.
  • Programs should identify measures of student readiness and receptiveness for virtual mentoring so that in-person/hybrid sessions versus entirely virtual mentoring opportunities can be matched appropriately.
  • The use of centralized resources, shared learning, and organizational support could improve program effectiveness for Dream and other programs considering virtual mentoring.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual

Barnes-Proby, Dionne, Susan Bush-Mecenas, Tara Laila Blagg, Christopher Joseph Doss, John F. Pane, and Jennifer Jeffries, Expanding the Village of Support Through Virtual Mentoring: Evaluation of the U.S. Dream Academy Mentoring Program, RAND Corporation, RR-A3442-1, 2024. As of April 30, 2025: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3442-1.html

Chicago Manual of Style

Barnes-Proby, Dionne, Susan Bush-Mecenas, Tara Laila Blagg, Christopher Joseph Doss, John F. Pane, and Jennifer Jeffries, Expanding the Village of Support Through Virtual Mentoring: Evaluation of the U.S. Dream Academy Mentoring Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3442-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the U.S. Dream Academy and conducted in the Justice Policy Program within RAND Social and Economic Well-Being.

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