UIC Cities Mentor Project

University of Illinois Chicago - IHRP/SPH

Cities Mentor Project is a research-based mentoring program dedicated to supporting Chicago Public School students. We make a long-term commitment to youth, supporting them from elementary school all the way through their first year in college. Cities Mentor Project was developed with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and was originally proposed as a one-year pilot, but we had a very active community advisory board with more than 100 community members with ideas of their own. The community advisory board was adamant that we not leave when the funding was over. So, Cities Mentor Project (beyond the research) was born. Although we continue to bring the most rigorous research methods to evaluating and improving Cities Mentor Project, the project has developed a mission and vision of its own. UIC graduate students can facilitate a coping skills curriculum with 10-12 pairs of UIC undergraduate mentors and their CPS student mentees while earning applied practicum experience (APE) hours (Application

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Program Components

Primary Areas of Focus

Other (please describe):

Desired Outcomes

Each UIC student (~30 openings) will be paired with a 6th-8th grade student to mentor at a participating school in the North Lawndale neighborhood. They will attend weekly mentoring sessions at their mentee's school throughout the 2025-2026 academic year (2 semesters, Fall 2025 and Spring 2026) in which they work in small groups and one-on-one with their mentee. Students must commit to ~5 hours per week to the program

Program Location

Settings: In-person

In-person location: North Lawndale CPS Schools

Timing

Duration: Academic School Year

Time periods: After school weekday hours, During the academic year (2025-2026)

Program Components

Academic support (e.g. tutoring, progress monitoring)
Application guidance/support (e.g. standardized test prep)
Mentoring (e.g. pairing with current health profession student)
This internship will allow students to develop skills for working with youth from diverse backgrounds, such as the importance of teamwork and collaboration when partnering with schools and community organizations, advocacy, activism, and leadership skills. Students will also gain an understanding of different challenges faced by youth and families in urban neighborhoods and valuable hands-on experience with strengths-based approaches to promoting resilience in these contexts.
Professional skills development (e.g. teamwork, ethical conduct)
Research experience (e.g. summer program)
How Does the Research Aspect Work? In accordance with the U.S. Dept of Education grant and to further prove the effectiveness of this intervention, we are collecting data from participants of this intervention. This means: Any family who signs up to be a part of the Cities Project will be randomly assigned to the Mentor group or Toolkit group. Mentor group will participate in weekly mentoring sessions. Toolkit group will receive weekly health, wellness, and academic focused handouts via email. Regardless of group, all families who enroll will receive $300 ($60 for students; $40 for parent/guardian) for participation and completion of 3 surveys over the course of the school year.