Mentor Minute

President Obama Proclaims January As National Mentoring Month

January 4, 2011: President Barack Obama has issued a proclamation designating January as National Mentoring Month. He stated, "Across our nation, mentors steer our youth through challenging times and support their journey into adulthood. During National Mentoring Month, we honor these important individuals who unlock the potential and nurture the talent of our country, and we encourage more Americans to reach out and mentor young people in their community."

January 2011 marks the 10^th anniversary of National Mentoring Month, an annual media campaign to recruit volunteer mentors for young people. Spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR and the Corporation for National and Community Service, this year's campaign focuses on mentoring as a strategy for boosting academic achievement. The campaign's tagline is "Help Them Get There. Become a Mentor."

Volunteer mentors can play a powerful role in reducing drug abuse and youth violence, as well as boosting academic achievement. Mentors help build young people's character and confidence, expand their universe and help them navigate a path to success. Despite these benefits, however, the gap between the number of mentors and the number of young people who need a mentor continues to grow. While three million young people have a mentor, 15 million need a caring adult mentor in their lives.

As part of National Mentoring Month, MENTOR, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Harvard School of Public Health will host a National Mentoring Summit January 25 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Registration for this Summit is now open.

"The Summit is designed to help the field focus attention on how mentoring can help keep kids out of trouble and in school," said MENTOR's President and CEO Dr. Larry M. Wright. "The Summit theme of 'Achieving Academic and Social Success: Supporting Youth through Mentoring' reflects our efforts as a whole to improve the graduation rate of high-school students and keep youth out of trouble."

This year's National Mentoring Month campaign includes a heavy emphasis on local communities, which is intended to energize and empower community and statewide mentoring initiatives as well as encourage planning and coordination among mentoring groups. In communities across the country, designated nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies are responsible for coordinating local campaign activities, including media outreach and volunteer recruitment. These local lead partners include state and local affiliates of MENTOR, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network, America's Promise Alliance, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Communities In Schools and United Way of America.

Local activities range from telethons and media appearances to mentor/mentee game days, basketball tournaments, concerts, walk-a-thons, movie and museum days and recognition events to honor outstanding mentors.

For additional information about National Mentoring Month, visit SERVE.gov/MENTOR. To register for the National Mentoring Summit, go to https://www.regonline.com/national_mentoring_partnership and use the access code: SYTM. For more information on youth mentoring, visit www.mentoring.org.