THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH MENTORING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC: IMPLICATION FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

In the presented paper, we aim to describe the types of natural as well as formal mentoring relationships and their settings and discuss their possible use within the youth work and social services settings in the Czech Republic. The aim of the presented paper is to explain the principles of good practice of mediating the mentoring principles through the formal mentoring intervention and explore the possible future use of mentoring principles in youth services in non-English speaking European countries, in particular in the Czech Republic. First of all, we will outline the background of formal mentoring intervention and explain the principles of mentoring from the system and social support theories perspectives. Secondly, we will summarize the occurrence of mentoring relationships within the natural social networks and describe the current forms of mentoring programs, which use the mentoring principles. ¨we will also mention the signs of mentoring relationship quality and efficiency of mentors according to the previous research. Thirdly, we will move to the description of current social policy Acts to explore the framework for the mentoring intervention. We will mention the social services, which implement the mentoring intervention in the Czech Republic within these Acts and explore the possible development of mentoring intervention within the existing legal framework. Finally, we will discuss the possibilities of implementation of the new programs for youth using the mentoring principles and forms, in both natural and formal settings. We will provide the youth work managers with the ideas of possible use of mentoring principles within newly established programs in the youth services and youth work settings.