Abstract
Mentoring is most broadly defined as the one-to-one relationship between a pair of unrelated individuals, usually of different ages, who come together so the more experienced person can share life experiences with the other (Karcher, 2005). Given that the majority of young people engage in structured or unstructured recreation, there is the potential for young people in these settings to benefit from mentoring. To date, however, there has been little to no research on mentoring in recreation settings to evaluate its impact. The purpose of this project was to conduct a needs assessment within municipal recreation departments and districts in the Sacramento region in order to assess the extent to which mentoring programs exist at these agencies and to assess an agencies interest in developing and incorporating a mentoring component into their existing programs. The study was conducted using a needs assessment completed by nine participants who represent municipal recreation departments or districts within the Sacramento metropolitan region. From the data, three themes emerged which explain the absence of mentoring in recreation departments and districts in the Sacramento region and include: selective volunteer opportunities, lack of financial and staffing resources and lack of understanding of formal mentoring. With such success in non-profit and education settings, bringing mentoring to parks and recreation is a viable possibility. If made a priority, mentoring can be just as effective as structured sports programs in municipal recreation and provide alternative volunteer opportunities. Future research should look at a larger geographic area to determine if mentoring programs are offered in municipal recreation outside of the Sacramento region. Additionally, future research in this area might also include an exploration of volunteer opportunities in municipal recreation departments and districts as the majority of opportunities appear to be in sports and coaching. Practitioners should seek out opportunities to learn more about implementing a mentoring program by working with other community groups and conducting their own research. Perhaps a mentoring program template or guidebook to creating such a program could be developed and tested in the recreation setting.