A personal, effective answer to youth violence

Our region, like our nation, is witnessing unprecedented instances of youth violence, some of it fatal and all of it unfortunate and unnecessary. It’s tough to get through the nightly news without seeing some sort of school, community, or residential crime that involves boys and girls under the age of 18.

Resource centers, curfews, and short-term interventions — the kind of answers many people push — reduce the instances of violence. But we need a more long-term, evidencebased strategy to connect with our youth and set them on a more positive path. Ideally, that connection will produce a solution before a crime is committed.

That solution is mentoring — specifically, the type of one-to-one consistent, supported, monitored, and tracked mentoring. When a young person has a caring adult focused on them through a one-to-one mentoring relationship, that attention significantly enhances their overall well-being, prevents risky behaviors, helps them stay connected to school, gets them prepared for work, and develops deeper connections to their communities.

I know this from the experience of leading Big Brothers Big Sisters Pittsburgh. Across the Big Brothers Big Sisters network, 96% of “littles” (mentored youth) are confident they can say no to drugs, violence and skipping school, 84% have better grades, academic goals, and confidence after enrolling in BBBS. And 95% feel like BBBS gives them a sense of belonging, which is critical for healthy mental well-being.

“The Youth Relationship Study,” conducted at the University of Illinois Chicago, found that Big Brothers Big Sisters’ one-to-one mentoring program works to reduce crime and delinquency among youth. This study was a randomized controlled trial and measured outcomes for 1,158 youth ages 10 and older at 17 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across the country.

After 18 months, those who had been offered participation in the program were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 32% had fewer incidents of hitting someone, and 52% skipped fewer school days.

The study also revealed that after 18 months, those in the BBBS program were 54% less likely to have been arrested and 41% were less likely to have engaged in substance use than their peers in the control group.

There are many factors that affect our youth. With 20% of youth in the BBBS program experiencing the loss of a trusted adult throughout the pandemic, many youth are experiencing mental health challenges. According to the CDC, 13 million young people are struggling with mental health challenges like anxiety and depression.

Often, mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders begin in early childhood. According to the CDC, 1 in 6 U.S. children aged 2 to 8 years have a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder and half of all chronic mental health challenges start showing up by age 14 on average. Often, it takes up to 10 years for youth to access the help they need — and they’re often at a crisis stage by then.

Addressing youth violence can be done effectively, one child at a time, through one-to-one mentoring relationships. We know that mentors play an important role in helping to support children and their families to promote overall well-being and intervene when a young person experiences mental health challenges. Mentoring programs and the relationships built with dependable adults can help youth better cope with depressive and anxiety symptoms and lessen the burden on existing systems of mental health care.

All mentors are part of something much bigger than just their individual effort. They are a part of something that is more than a nice to have, but rather, something that is truly a necessity in our society. For many children, having someone who cares about them, shows up for them and sees the potential in them is the thing that keeps them hoping and striving for more.