‘Mentors need mentors’: the perspectives of adolescent cross-age mentors of colour about their instructors’ supports

This study investigates instructor activities that 158 adolescent mentors of community children found meaningful in the context of their under-resourced urban communities. Theoretical frameworks draw from trauma theory, self-psychology, and community cultural wealth. Data include field notes, peer-to-peer program evaluation interviews, exit interviews, focus groups, and notes from clinical seminars for instructors. Mentors found instructor support vital for developing their empathy, especially with mentees behaving counter to expectations. Mentors also valued instructors’ authentic, supportive responses to stressors and feedback about the mentors’ positive impacts with mentees. As constructive social networks were formed, the program deepened the social capital form of community cultural wealth. From a self-psychology perspective, deepening mentor’s empathy occurred through iterative processes of instructor support and advice, experiences interacting with mentees and evaluating mentees’ responsiveness, and instructors’ affirmation of mentors’ competence and importance to mentees. Adolescents’ perspectives offer rich insights for optimizing social service provision, especially for marginalized youth.