Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring: Shaping the Futures of Black Youth

Announcing the 2026 Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring at the University of Calgary: Shaping the Futures of Black Youth – Bridging Research and Practice in Culturally Responsive Mentorship.

The Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring is a professional enrichment experience like no other. For four days, 25 practitioners and eight acclaimed researchers in youth mentoring come together to interact, exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, network… and learn.  It’ll happen in transformative workshops, presentations, and gatherings.

The theme for this year’s Institute is mentoring Black youth: creating bridges between research and practice. The Institute will explore how mentoring can draw on and build the strengths and assets of Black youth and their communities, while explicitly integrating frameworks that address anti-Black racism, decolonization, and cultural responsiveness.

Key themes will include:

• Centring Black youth voice and agency in mentoring.
• Cultural humility to build trust and authentic relationships across racial differences.
• The role of natural mentorship and engaging families and social networks.
• Balancing individual development goals with collective cultural transmission.
• Designing programs that affirm Black identity and support critical consciousness.
• Overcoming barriers to mentorship access for Black youth.

The 2026 Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring is sponsored by the Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized Peoples Health research program and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Project: Transforming the Lives of Black Children and Youth in Canada.

Please note, this event will take place in English only.

Click on the Learn More link for more details and to submit your application!