Background of Youth Mentoring Programs - Essay Example

In the youth mentoring program, mentors are expected to carry out activities with their mentees in order to fulfil the main objectives of the program. The principle of beneficence basically declares that the goals of any activity must benefit a person. The mentorship program must therefore bring the utmost benefit to the mentee. In the process, no harm must also be brought to the mentee. The mentorship program seeks to provide various benefits for the mentees; moreover, it also seeks to prevent any physical and emotional harm from befalling him.

In the mentoring arena, there are various behaviours that may be considered harmful. These behaviours may include physical abuse, sexual harassment, and verbal abuse, as well as prejudice and demographic considerations relating to gender, age, and ethnic bias. News information describe and interpret harmful behaviour in different ways, however, any malice intended in the acts would automatically be considered as unethical, and in some cases, also illegal (Rhodes and Dubois, 2009). Moreover, any appearance of impropriety would often be considered unethical, especially when it causes discomfort on the part of the mentee.

For any mentor, the inclusion of practitioner research is an essential part of the mentorship program. Supporting such program with the appropriate ethical practices would also help ensure professionalism, prevent harm, maintain boundaries, and protect standards in the program. Under these conditions, the mentorship program would therefore be supported by both research and ethical standards of practice. Fidelity and responsibility touches on the ability of the mentors to stick to the stipulation of the mentoring program by ensuring that they attend to all the sessions in the appropriate durations.

Both fidelity and responsibility have implications on the consistency, as well as the reliability of the mentoring program. This is pertinent because the success of the mentoring program has always been determined by various elements (Rhodes and Dubois, 2009). In this case, trust has often been perceived as the pillar of the mentoring program.