Caring for Kids in Communities invites schools to consider the use of mentorship, peer support, and student leadership programs to positively support the growth and learning of all students. It presents research on successful programs spanning kindergarten through grade 12 and includes a wealth of case studies of individual programs as well as individual pairs of mentors and mentees. Thus, this book provides insight into the experiences of students, mentors, teachers, and coordinators from these programs as well as descriptive, practical material for implementing similar programs.

The Authors: Julia Ellis is Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta. She has held previous appointments at the University of Toronto and the University of Lethbridge. She received her Ed.D. from the University of British Columbia. Ellis is editor of Teaching from Understanding: Teacher as Interpretive Inquirer and co-editor of Girls, Women, and Giftedness. She has published many articles related to narrative inquiry with children and youth, gender issues, multiculturalism, troubled children and youth, and mentorship, peer support, and student leadership programs.
Jan Small-McGinley is an educational and behavioral programming consultant working with a multidisciplinary team to provide assessment, consultation, and programming to sensory multihandicapped students across Alberta for Alberta Learning. She taught in the Edmonton Public School District for several years and received her Ph.D. in Elementary Education from the University of Alberta. She has a number of publications on troubled children and youth, mentorship, peer support, and student leadership programs.
Lucy De Fabrizio received her M.A. in Education from the University of British Columbia and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. She has taught first, second, and foreign languages to students ranging from grade one to adults in Canada and abroad. Her journal publications are on topics of mentorship programs and the body, gender, and eating disorders.