Program evaluation is an increasingly important area of operations for all youth mentoring programs. These National Mentoring Center resources can help youth mentoring programs evaluate the quality of the mentoring relationships they are building, as well as focus on key participant outcomes.

NMC Resources

Measuring the Quality of Mentor Youth Relationships: A Tool for Mentoring Programs
This resource provides programs with a simple youth survey that measures the closeness of their relationship with their mentor. This can be an excellent tool for showing that your program is making valuable mentoring connections, and can also be administered at various points to see which mentoring pairs may need extra support or training.

Redefining Your Success: The Role of Adolescent Connectedness in Demonstrating Mentoring Impact (Fact Sheet)
This fact sheet explores the concept of connectedness, a trait many researchers believe to be critical in helping youth navigate the choppy waters of adolescence. The Hemingway Scale, and important tool for measuring connectedness, is also highlighted.

Resources from Other Organizations

These resources, developed by other agencies and organizations, can also help mentoring programs design and implement their evaluations.

Hemingway Scale of Adolescent Connectedness (published by Dr. Michael Karcher, UT-San Antonio)

Match Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ) and the Youth Mentoring Survey (YMS) (downloadable tools from Dr. John Harris and Dr. Michael Nakkula)

Outcome-Based Evaluation: A Training Toolkit for Programs of Faith (published by FASTEN)

Performance Measurement Packet for Youth Mentoring Programs (published by Project STAR, be sure to download the scoring sheets, as well)

Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation (published by the Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services)

What’s Working? Tools for Evaluating Your Mentoring Program (published by the Search Institute)

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook (published by W.K. Kellogg Foundation)