'"Step Out": Youth at Risk of Reoffending' Mentoring Initiative: Evaluation of the Step Out initiative

Red Cross commissioned the School of Law (Flinders University) to make a longitudinal evaluation of its innovative Step Out project, a mentoring initiative for young offenders who have been in contact with South Australia’s Youth Justice Directorate. The purpose was to track the program over 15 months to determine its success in helping participants to identify their personal goals, reconnect with their communities and minimise their future risk of reoffending.

The evaluation examined the variables which impact on the mentor/mentee relationship, the benefits of the program and ways to improve the program in the future. The evaluation findings were extremely positive. Mentoring made a substantive impact on mentees’ decision-making and capacity to plan for pro-social futures, as well as practical and immediate outcomes such as securing accommodation, job training or employment.

The evaluator found that mentors probably underestimated the nature and extent of their positive impact on mentees’ lives, and that mentees believed their journey toward integration into mainstream society had been made easier, better, or more probable, through their participation in the Step Out program.