Miriam and Noah are back in time for National Mentoring Month to demystify mentoring x foster care: What is mentoring? How do young people manage the road to independence? What might it mean to mentor a young person in foster care?

This episode digs into formal and informal definitions of mentoring; hear from the community directly to gain multiple insights into how culture, psychology, and policy shape how society understands independence after foster care.

Works Referenced:

California Department of Education — Foster Care & California Schools

Golden, N. A. (2017). “There’s still that window that’s open”: The problem with “grit.” Urban Education, 52(3): 343–369.

Pennington CR, Heim D, Levy AR, Larkin DT. (2016) “Twenty Years of Stereotype Threat Research: A Review of Psychological Mediators.” PLoS One.

Samuels, G. M. & Pryce, J. M. (2008). “What Doesn't Kill You Makes Your Stronger”: Survivalist self-reliance as resilience and risk among young adults aging out of foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 30, Issue 10, Pages 1198-1210.