Mentoring is on the rise! The Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota is pleased to share with you a report summarizing data from the Prevalence of Mentoring Survey that was administered at the end of 2005 and reflects data from the 2004 calendar year. A total of 317 mentoring organizations in the state were invited to complete the survey, with 103 organizations returning surveys for a response rate of 32%.

The Mentoring Partnership is pleased with the results! To those of you who took the time to share your organization’s data, we thank you! The results of the survey provide a more comprehensive picture on the state of mentoring in Minnesota and the impact on our communities. The Mentoring Partnership looks forward to continuing this survey model to capture future successes in youth mentoring. Below are some key results of the survey.

· According to the 103 organizations represented in the survey, more than 170,000 young people were mentored in the state of Minnesota during 2004.

· The most common mentoring program type represented in the survey was community-based one-to-one mentoring (47%), while school-based group mentoring programs served the largest proportion of mentees (over 109,000).

· A slight majority (51%) of the mentoring relationships took place out in the community.

· 63% of the programs represented required a mentor time commitment of 10 months or more.

· Over 60% of the programs conducted at least state background checks of their mentors, while 22% did not conduct any type of background check.

· Of those programs that conducted background checks, 50% conducted their own, 24% used an outside company, and 26% conducted both their own AND used an outside company.

·   78% of the programs conducted at least one outcome evaluation of mentoring in 2004, of which mentees’ social skills was the most common outcome assessed.

To see the full report of the Prevalence of Mentoring Survey, please visit www.mentoringworks.org. Thank you for your commitment and dedication to youth mentoring.