YOUTH MENTORSHIP + CHILDHOOD POVERTYCaroline Atkinson, Jess Burhans, Hannah MazurDesign Methodology I, Matthew Wizinsky

Mentoring guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Research confirms a mentor’s powerful positive e�ects in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunity.

Secondary Research -They need a place where they can “feel safe to talk and not be judged.”

-90% of mentoring at Guiding Light is emotional mentoring

-Mentoships that feel more like relationships work better

-A book with rules, goal tracking, and journaling would be helpful

-In a group, they give personal feedback and become mini-mentors

Primary Research -They need a structured workbook where they can write down or draw their thoughts.

-They prefer open ended prompts but need a push to get them started.

-Every kid is di�erent and a breadth of activities will allow for more kids to be involved.

-They prefer simple but open ended prompts with short questions.

Primary Research

1st Meeting

Child’s trust level

Child’s confidence level

We tested a variety of question styles on two different mentoring groups. We had very structured questions, slightly structured, open ended, and blank pages. A majority of the mentees preferred the slightly structured questions. They said they needed an easy prompt to get their ideas started in order to write them or talk in a group.

Comprehension EvaluationWe tested multiple concepts, styles, and structures on two different mentoring groups. Both groups responded better to the more structured pages with short and easy prompts. The mentees preferred specific prompts over open ended questions. They preferred pages with ruled lines or a dot grid over an open space. They preferred a dot grid for the extra pages because they could choose to write or draw.

Usability EvaluationWe did multiple rounds of testing of the design on the two groups. We struggled with finding an age-appropriate design that would fit the age group of 11-18 year olds. We originally wanted a binder with stickers but the groups thought this was too childish. We settled on a 6x9 book with minimal geometric based designs to fit the age group based on our testing.

Desirability Evaluation

Unique is a eighth grader in Cincinnati public schools. She is the oldest of five siblings with a single working mother. She doesn’t get a lot of quality one on one attention at home. She struggles with self-confidence and trust as well as some basic interpersonal skills. She would like to join a mentor program to make friends and build self-confidence.

Mentee: Unique

Pattie is a middle aged professional in Cincinnati. Her kids are all in college and she wants to volunteer in her free time. She is passionate about helping kids but is not sure of what ways she can help. She has free time during evening to volunteer. She is willing to be a part of a long time project.

Mentor: Patti

Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Week 8 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 14 Week 15

From our primary and secondary research, we found a need for a personal mentoring workbook. We interviewed mentor program coordinators, mentors, and mentees and they all believed that emotional mentoring is more important that educational mentoring. Emotional mentoring helps kids deal with

Design Opportunity

Source: Mentoring Impact Source: Latisha, Guiding Light Source: Mentoring Plus mentees

personal situations while strengthening personal skills. Similar to educational mentoring, emotional mentoring has long-term positive impacts on a child’s life.

User ContextOur project is a book that contains a variety of activities and prompts for mentees to fill out. Our target age range is 11-15 years old. The book focuses on personal mentorship instead of educational. From our research, we discovered that personal mentoring is equally, if not more, important than education

mentoring. The book will focus on building self-confidence and personal skills like goal building. When a mentee starts the mentorship program, they would receive this book from their mentor. The first activity is to design the cover. This would allow for the book to feel personal to the mentee and

allows for a topic of conversation. The book has enough content for a semester, 15 weeks.