The Kindness of Strangers: Adult Mentors, Urban Youth, and the New Voluntarism [Paperback]

Marc Freedman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521652871 | ISBN-13: 978-0521652872 | Publication Date: January 13, 1999 | Edition: Revised

The Kindness of Strangers tells the story of a group of concerned adults who mentor inner-city youth. It describes what volunteers can do to ameliorate the conditions of young people living in poverty. It chronicles the rise of the mentoring movement and examines its wider implications for education and social policy. Based on interviews with over 300 mentors, young people, scholars, and youth workers, The Kindness of Strangers takes a hard look at mentoring and asks some critical questions: How much can mentoring really accomplish? What does it take to be a successful mentor? What makes the difference between an effective program and one fraught with difficulties? Marc Freedman brings experience, research, and realism to these questions in an effort to present the truth about the mentoring movement sweeping America today. This revised edition contains a new introduction that highlights research that has been conducted since the original publication of the book in 1993. Marc Freedman is President of Civic Ventures, a research and development organization based in Berkeley, California. He has studied education and social policy for more than a decade and prior to starting Civic Ventures he was director of special projects for Public/Private Ventures, an organization focused on helping young people in poverty.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the examples of adult mentor-youth relationships presented by Freedman, who is on the staff of Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia research organization that focuses on youngsters in poverty, we hear from eight men and women who "answered the call." They describe their not unqualified successes in helping young people through volunteer projects, and the strength of their commitment as mentors. An overview of various programs throughout the country--I have a Dream, One-on-One, Project RAISE--discusses various strategies of outreach to youth. Mentors are often challenged to the point of frustration, yet their experience of small victories and subtle changes in their young mentees are inspiring. As Freedman notes, "Mentoring enables us to participate in the essential but unfinished drama of reinventing community, while reaffirming that there is an important role for each of us in it."
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Americans have been volunteering for various social causes for quite some time. Freedman takes a look at the history of a number of volunteer movements, including such familiar ventures as Big Brothers/Big Sisters and less familiar antecedents such as Friendly Visiting. Emphasizing the importance of one-on-one relationships between adult mentors and urban youth, who so often experience poverty and violence in their lives, he argues that mentoring is an important partial solution to many of our social problems. Several mentors describe their experiences, and Freedman distills some guidelines for successful mentoring. This book should find a welcome spot in most social science collections.
- John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Revised edition (January 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521652871
• ISBN-13: 978-0521652872
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,837,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mentoring-a difficult task, December 12, 2006

By 

Rishel Gordham (Olympia, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kindness of Strangers: Adult Mentors, Urban Youth, and the New Voluntarism (Paperback)

This book focused primarily on adults who have mentored inner-city youth by providing guidance to youth during difficult times. The author, Marc Freedman acknowledges the fact that mentoring is a difficult task for anyone to take on, especially when it involves difficult or problematic individuals, but reaching out and allowing youth to become emotionally connected with their mentors provides an amazing outcome and rewards the mentor for their endurance and perseverance.

The author's background and personal experience with researching the effects on mentoring on youth in America is made clear throughout the book. Freeman highlights his research within the book and encompasses it with a deep personal care in regards to the fate of youth growing up in poverty. For the creation of this boo Freedman interviews over 300 mentors, you people, scholars, and youth workers and gathers that information to examine some difficult questions mentors face nowadays such as; how much can mentoring really accomplish, what does it take to be a successful mentor, and what makes the difference between an effective program and one fraught with difficulties.

The book is divided up into 10 main areas which focus on calling individuals to action, creating great expectation, recurring fervor, birth of a movement, the benefits of mentoring, making the most of mentoring, closing the caring gap, re-engaging the middle class, and reinventing the community.