Las Madrinas

Las Madrinas is a community-based mentoring program for young Hispanic women. Price, Cioci, Penner, and Trautlein (1990) describe this program:

"Las Madrinas means 'godmothers' in Spanish, and the girls are described as Ahijadas, 'god daughters.' The Madrinas are young working professional Hispanic women who are high achievers and willing to return to their own communities to share their talents and experiences.

The program combines the development of intense personal bonds with structured group activities. The program begins with orientation sessions to teach Madrinas what can be done for young girls. Both Ahijadas and Madrinas fill out intake forms describing their interests and background as well as their individual needs and aspirations. A pairing of godmothers and god daughters then occurs, and godmothers commit to the program for a minimum of two hours every two weeks for thirty weeks.

Program activities include seminars, field trips, and informal contacts of a variety of different kinds. In addition, girls learn a variety of social skills in role playing activities, giving and receiving feedback to each other, and analyzing case studies which describe problems that girls might encounter as they grow up. The case studies are analyzed and discussed so that alternative solutions to problems can be better understood." (p. 45)

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