A newly released book, titled Handbook of Professional Youth Mentoring, spotlights the professional mentoring model, work, and history of Friends of the Children. Nine chapters center on our organization, featured in a section of the book called “Illustrative Example,” and written by Friends of the Children stakeholders and staff including Founder Duncan Campbell; Friends of the Children National Board Member, Dr. Tom Keller; CEO Terri Sorensen; Chief Officer of Strategy and Innovation, Erinn Kelley-Siel; Chief Officer of Research and Quality, Dr. Susan Walsh, Director of Performance and Quality Management, Holly Huillet, and more. These chapters address the origins of our organization, our expansion and scaling, local chapter organization, and related evaluation, studies, and research. The book begins with a forward written by youth advocate and World Champion gymnast Simone Biles, who is a national ambassador for Friends of the Children.

Edited by Dr. J. Mark Eddy and Dr. Kevin P. Haggerty, lead researchers for the Friends of the Children randomized controlled trial, the new book “explores the extensive initial and continuing education and skills training that professional youth mentors receive as well as ongoing supervision and support to bolster their effectiveness with children, their families, and systems (e.g., schools, health care) that they interact with regularly." Of critical importance, the book looks closely at how professional youth mentoring differs from “the current dominant youth mentoring paradigm (i.e., short-term volunteering).”

“We are so grateful that this new book highlights our model as an example of professional youth mentoring with impact going to scale,” says Terri Sorensen, CEO of Friends of the Children – National. “All of us were excited to share information about how long term professional youth mentoring changes the life of a child.”

Handbook of Professional Youth Mentoring is more than a work about educational theory—it serves as an important reference for a variety of disciplines, including researchers, education professionals, as well as clinicians, social workers, public health and juvenile justice professionals, and more.

Especially as we launch our new Duncan and Cindy Campbell National Center of Excellence for Professional Youth Mentoring, it’s exciting to see the field of Professional Youth Mentoring be more formally recognized as an opportunity to strengthen outcomes for young people across the country and the world.