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MENTOR Minutes

Below is a listing of previous MENTOR Minutes. You may also wish to review What's New. If you are a member of the media and would like to periodically receive MENTOR press releases via email, please contact us.

Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver's Choice Issues First Voucher
May 7, 2008: Last week, MENTOR's Caregiver's Choice program issued its first voucher for mentoring services to a family from Bend, Oregon. More...
MENTOR Offers Online Debate Platform
April 3, 2008: MENTOR has partnered with Helium, the leader in online citizen journalism, to connect different voices in the mentoring community, and to raise awareness of quality youth mentoring in the United States. More...
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Urge Hispanics to Mentor
March 19, 2008: An ambitious Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS) pilot program has reaped a 29 percent increase in the number of Hispanics youth served over the course of the last year. More...
MENTOR's SafetyNET Serves as Model in Proposed Congressional Bill
March 14, 2008: The SafetyNET program, created in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the National Council on Youth Sports, the FBI, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, will serve as the model for a permanent system available to all youth-serving organizations as embodied in the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2008 after almost five years of field testing. More...
MENTOR Offers Match Program for Children of the Incarcerated
February 22, 2008: MENTOR is pleased to announce the launch of Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver’s Choice, a nationwide voucher program providing children of incarcerated parents with expanded access to mentoring services.
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White House Leads Mentoring Roundtable
February 5, 2008: The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) convened a Compassion in Action policy roundtable in January, highlighting the efforts of America's dedicated mentors.
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MENTOR Launches New 2008 Public Service Announcements
January 17, 2008: MENTOR has created dynamic print and broadcast public service announcements (PSAs) urging readers/viewers to go to www.mentoring.org to find out more about what it takes to be a mentor, real-life mentor-mentee stories, and most importantly, how to volunteer.
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MENTOR Observes Martin Luther King Day and 40 Days of Nonviolence
January 15, 2008: MENTOR encourages all of its partners to continue use this Day of Service as a means to recruit more mentors and engage them in a service that honors Dr. King's life and teachings, and make a difference in the life of a child by doing so.
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Federal Government Rings in the New Year with Strong Support of Mentoring
December 28, 2007: With vigorous grassroots and MENTOR-led advocacy on Capitol Hill, Congress has allocated $100 million in funding to benefit mentoring organizations throughout the country in fiscal year 2008.
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Research in Action Series
December 12, 2007: MENTOR is pleased to announce the release of an innovative series - Research in Action - that translates the latest scholarly research on mentoring into tangible strategies for mentoring practitioners. More...

MENTOR Rolls out MentorPRO
December 4, 2007: MentorPRO® is the first of its kind: an online data tracking and analysis tool that allows organizations to access and track data to better manage Programs, monitor Relationships and evaluate Outcomes. More...

Mentors of the Year Celebrated at Back to the Bull Party
November 27, 2007: Five very special individuals were honored with the Corporate Mentor of the Year Award in recognition of the time, talent and energy that they have put into their relationships as mentors for New York City's youth. More...

MENTOR Board Member Receives America's Promise Alliance Award
November 19, 2007: On November 13, the Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J., former chancellor of Boston College, received The National Promise of America Founders' award for his role in supporting the health, education and welfare of children at a White House ceremony hosted by First Lady Laura Bush. More...

First Lady Laura Bush Announces MENTOR's Administration of Demonstration Program
November 2, 2007: Yesterday, First Lady Laura Bush announced a 30 million dollar initiative to create a nationwide voucher program designed to provide children of incarcerated parents with expanded access to mentoring services. More...

2.9M Awarded to Fund National Long-Term Mentoring Study
October 30, 2007: The National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) has awarded $2.91M over the next five years to the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) to fund a national study on the effectiveness of the Friends of the Children (FOTC) youth mentoring program. More...

MENTOR's Vital SafetyNET Program co-sponsored by LifeLock and Newsweek
September 18, 2007: SafetyNET—a program championed by MENTOR and created by Congress—was established to provide mentoring organizations across the country access to nationwide FBI fingerprint searches. More...

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Department of Education Announces 2007 Mentoring Programs Grants Recipients
September 11, 2007: Last week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) awarded 170 grants, ranging in size from $47,573 to $412,743 per year for three years. More...

MENTOR and the NBA Team Up for Mentoring
August 27, 2007: MENTOR and NBA Cares, a National Basketball Association (NBA) social responsibility initiative, are teaming up to move the concept of mentoring forward, faster, in communities served by the NBA. More...

School-based Mentoring National Study Released
August 6, 2007: Last week, Public/Private Ventures released "Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study," a landmark study that examines the efficacy of the school-based mentoring model. More...

A Powerful Partnership at Work in Connecticut
July 30, 2007: Webster Bank and Connecticut Mentoring Partnership joined forces five years ago when Webster initiated a mentoring program through its diversity-awareness committee. More...

Leading Senators in Both Parties Champion Mentoring
July 23, 2007: Last week, Senators on both sides of the aisle worked diligently to strengthen and raise awareness about mentoring. More...

MENTOR Featured at 2007 National Conference on Volunteering and Service
July 10, 2007: Once again this year, mentoring—one of the most rewarding forms of volunteer services—will be highlighted at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. More...

The Oprah Winfrey Show and ESSENCE CARES Generate Interest in Mentoring
June 27, 2007: The level of interest in mentoring generated by the ESSENCE CARES initiative and The Oprah Winfrey Show, "The Man Who 'Adopted' 6,000 Children," which aired in late May, has been impressive. More...

1000 Women for Mentoring Honors Muriel Siebert
June 19, 2007: For busy women, taking time for a special luncheon on a weekday is often last on their to-do lists. But not if it is for a good cause. More...

Strengthening School-Based Mentoring
June 12, 2007: Mentoring is a critical element in a child's social, cognitive, and emotional development. In addition, it plays a key role in improving the learning environment for a young person; mentored youth have better attendance and are more connected to their school, schoolwork, and teachers. More...

MENTOR to Spearhead National Discussion on Accreditation
June 5, 2007: It is sometimes hard to imagine the incredible power within one person—the power to inspire, to love, and to alter the course of other people's lives. But that is what a responsible, caring adult can offer a child if matched through a formal, high-quality mentoring program. More...

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Mentor and Essence Cares Partner to Promote Mentoring
May 31, 2007: MENTOR is delighted to announce its partnership with ESSENCE CARES, an initiative of Essence Communications, Inc. Essence is galvanizing the African-American community to address the state of emergency facing children in America today. More...

Online Forum for Programs Serving Immigrant Youth
May 25, 2007: In order to connect a caring, adult mentor with every young person who needs or wants one, MENTOR is targeting specific populations. As part of this effort, we are pleased to announce the release of two new resources for mentoring programs serving refugee and immigrant youth. More...

Telemachan Council Gathers to Support Mentoring
May 22, 2007: The Telemachan Council is a small group of influential benefactors who are committed to expanding the world of quality mentoring. More...

Giving Voice to America's Silent Epidemic
May 15, 2007: Last week, educators, public policymakers, and members of the media as well as a panel of young people gathered at a National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic to bring continued attention to the dropout epidemic. More...

Mentoring Partnerships Promoting New Initiative
May 1, 2007: Mentoring Partnerships are connecting—or reconnecting—with their state's First Spouse in the effort to take a leadership role in connecting young people with the power of mentoring. More...

1000 Women for Mentoring to Convene for Luncheon
April 24, 2007: 1000 Women for Mentoring is a special initiative spearheaded by an illustrious group of women that is dedicated to expanding mentoring services across the country and supporting the women who are making it happen. More...

Research and Policy Council Convened in April
April 17, 2007: Last week, the Research and Policy Council—made up of the nation's leading mentoring researchers, policy experts, and practitioners and led by Jean Rhodes, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston—convened to exchange ideas to strengthen youth mentoring. More...

Senator Examining Impact of Mentoring on Youth Crime and Violence
April 10, 2007: Concentrating on his home state of Pennsylvania, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R) is doing a lot of listening in order to come up with effective solutions to combat crime and youth violence. More...

Mentoring Partnerships Go Creative When Raising Awareness
April 3, 2007: In an effort to raise awareness and enthusiasm for mentoring, Mentoring Partnerships nationwide are outdoing themselves this spring with fun, creative, and meaningful events. More...

National Volunteer Week Coming Soon
March 27, 2007: People don't need a special week designated to do good works—to volunteer in their community, mentor a child, or contribute to a cause—but collective enthusiasm and energy do go a long way. This year, April 15-21 is National Volunteer Week. More...

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New Online Events and Training Calendar Launched
March 20, 2007: MENTOR's new Event Calendar features upcoming mentoring-related conferences and workshops to be held by our network of state and local Mentoring Partnerships, as well as those of government agencies and other organizations. More...

Governors' Spouses Urged to Get Involved in Mentoring
February 28, 2007: This past weekend, Governors and their spouses from nearly every state in the nation gathered in Washington, DC for the 2007 National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting. As chair of the NGA Spouses' Program, First Gentleman Daniel Mulhern, a committed champion for mentoring, challenged spouses to take a leadership role in connecting young people with the power of mentoring. More...

Restoring Mentoring Funding: A First Victory
February 20, 2007: Last week, Congress gave final approval to the comprehensive spending bill for 2007. The $464-billion bill funds most federal programs at last year's spending levels. Specific language insures that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) must spend $48.8 million on Mentoring Programs grants. More...

Meet Charmaine and Chris
February 13, 2007: No matter what role you play in helping bring the power of mentoring to more of America's young people, at the end of the day, our work is all about helping children build a positive future. More...

Another Successful National Mentoring Month
February 6, 2007: The sixth annual National Mentoring Month campaign made strides in the effort to raise awareness for the need for youth mentors. Across the country, Mentoring Partnerships led the local effort through a variety of messages and events, including recognition events, media partnerships, corporate engagement, and legislative advocacy. More...

Celebrating Excellence at Mentoring's Big Night
January 30, 2007: It was palpable—the excitement around the life-changing effects of mentoring and all the countless people and organizations that continue to work to bring the power of mentoring to many more kids nationwide. Mentoring's Big Night to Gab, Graze, & Groove, held Thursday, January 25, 2007 in New York City. More...

Congressional Leaders Take Up Mentoring Cause
January 23, 2007: The new 110th session of Congress is likely to take up several issues affecting mentoring, including funding levels for mentoring grant programs and the reauthorization of SafetyNET. More...

Celebrating National Mentoring Month Coast to Coast
January 16, 2007: Mentoring Partnerships from coast to coast are spotlighting youth mentoring through celebrations, sporting events, forums, conferences, and proclamations similar to those issued by the White House. More...

Lionsgate Films and MENTOR Share the Pride of Mentoring
January 9, 2007: A new film will open in theaters this spring that captures the powerful connection between caring adults and young people who want and need their guidance. More...

National Mentoring Month Celebrations Kick Off the New Year
January 2, 2007: January is National Mentoring Month (NMM) and this year’s celebrations are bigger and better than ever. Spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project, MENTOR and the Corporation for National and Community Service, NMM focuses national attention on the need for youth mentors. More...

2006: A Successful Year For Mentoring
December 19, 2006: 2006 was an extraordinary year for mentoring. As the year draws to a close, please join us in celebrating the mentoring field’s many achievements. More...