GirlPOWER! Strengthening mentoring relationships through a structured, gender-specific program

The authors examine GirlPOWER! an innovative program that uses structure and group-based activities to enhance one-to-one mentoring relationships for young adolescent girls from the perspective of the focus, purpose, and authorship dimensions of mentoring relationships that Karcher and Nakkula described. The discussion draws on several sources of data that contributed to the development and ongoing refinement of the program. The authors highlight their efforts to design the program in a way that navigates the tensions they encountered in balancing attention to competing concerns associated with each dimension. Based on their analysis, they conclude that what may appear to be competing areas of emphasis in mentoring relationships, such as a focus on goals or relationship development, may in practice often prove to be mutually reinforcing and thus synergistic. Their experience underscores a need to complement program enhancements such as GirlPOWER! with individualized support that is geared to the unique backgrounds of mentors and the distinctive features of each mentoring relationship.