The mentoring FAN: a conceptual model of attunement for youth development settings

ABSTRACT

Although youth mentoring as a field has enjoyed significant growth over the last 20 years, a good percentage of mentor relationships end prematurely. Empirically informed models of training to support the mentoring relationship are limited. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of attunement in youth mentoring; describe the FAN framework for relationship-building and reflective practice in youth mentoring and apply the model to work within a mentoring agency serving youth through site-based programmes. The proposed framework prioritises reflective practice and theories of interpersonal communication to help build relational connection within the youth mentoring system. The article concludes with recommendations for more general application of the FAN to social work practice beyond youth mentoring, and its potential role in promoting social worker well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Attunement
• mentoring
• reflective practice
• youth development

Disclosure statement

We, the authors, acknowledge that there is no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct applications of our research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Erikson Institute Faculty Innovation Fund Grant 15.18 (internal funding).

Notes on contributors

Linda Gilkerson

Linda Gilkerson, Ph.D., LSW, is a professor at Erikson Institute where she directs the graduate training programmes in infancy and infant mental health. She founded Erikson’s first clinical initiative, Fussy Baby Network, a national model home visiting programme for parents of infants under one year. Dr. Gilkerson is the developer of the FAN (Facilitating Attuned Interactions), an approach that is used widely in home visitation, early intervention, early childhood mental health consultation programmes, and physician training to facilitate parent engagement and reflective practice. Her research and publications focus on relationship-based approaches and reflective supervision in a range of settings. She was a long-time board member of Zero to Three, lead or served on many early childhood task forces in Illinois and was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bright Promises Foundation for her work on behalf of young children.

Julia Pryce

Julia Pryce, Ph.D., LCSW, is a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. Her research focuses on interventions of non-parental adults in the lives of young people living in risk. Her research and publications focus on mentoring and youth development in child welfare and in other systems, as well as the role of social justice and attention to spirituality in social work education. She is an Invited Member of the National Mentoring Research Board, and her work has received support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, among other funders.