“A Positive Guiding Hand”: A Qualitative Examination of Youth-Initiated Mentoring and the Promotion of Interdependence among Foster Care Youth

Mentoring programs have been shown to be effective for many youth; however, youth in foster care sometimes have difficulty engaging in these program. Youth-initiated mentoring (YIM) is a type of mentoring where youth select the person to be their mentor, typically someone they already know, with the goal of creating successful mentor-mentee relationships with a high level of engagement by both parties. This study examined the impact of a YIM pilot program with results demonstrating a positive impact.