Michael J Karcher

The Cross-Age Mentoring Program (CAMP) Mentor Handbook Michael J Karcher

The Cross-Age Mentoring Program (CAMP) for Children with Adolescent Mentors is a school-based, after-school program designed to provide groups of teenage mentors the structure, guidance, and support needed to effectively mentor younger children. CAMP targets improvements in both the children's (mentees') and the adolescents' (mentors') connectedness to school, teachers, family, peers/friends, and self (where connectedness is defined as positive affect toward and consistent engagement in contexts, relationships and activities). A year-long connectedness curriculum (for 4th-6th grade mentees) targets multiple domains of connectedness with domain-specific activities (e.g., projects involving teachers and parents). Guidelines are presented for staff and experienced mentors to create new activities for subsequent program years or for different youth populations (e.g., for middle school age or health promotion specifically). CAMP is a universal or primary prevention program intended and appropriate for hybrid groups of youth at varying levels of risk for academic, social, or behavioral problems (the ratio of high to low risk mentees should not exceed 1:5). In CAMP youth meet in mentor-mentee dyads within a small group setting (