Your Help Needed: President's Budget Cuts Mentoring Funding in Half
March 10, 2008: CALL OR E-MAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY
As we reported in our last e-advocacy update, the President's proposed budget for FY2009 would cut mentoring funding in half. It would eliminate all funding for the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Mentoring Programs grants (currently funded at $50 million), while preserving the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Mentoring Children of Prisoners program at $50 million.
Eliminating ED's Mentoring Grants would mean that no new grants could be awarded in 2009 or any subsequent year. And, it would mean that all of the 2007 grantees would lose funding and have to end their projects a year early, possibly ending mentoring relationships prematurely. It would suggests that any new 2008 grants would just be one-year projects.
We need your help in showing Congress that the mentoring field supports these grant programs. Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA) and Congressman Ric Keller (R-FL) are asking their fellow Representatives to sign a letter to the House Appropriations Committee in support of $100 million for mentoring.
Please ask your Representative to sign this letter. Please call or e-mail your Representative THIS WEEK before March 17, 2008:
TO SEND AN E-MAIL: Visit http://capwiz.com/mentor/issues/alert/?alertid=11095886
Simply type in your address to send our prepared letter to your Representative
TO CALL: Visit http://capwiz.com/mentor/dbq/officials/ and type in your zip code to locate the phone number for your Representative. Call the main number in the Washington, DC office and tell them
"I ask the Representative to sign onto the mentoring appropriations letter being circulated by Representatives Susan Davis and Ric Keller."
If you need additional talking points before you call, you can use the letter linked in the "To Send an E-Mail" instructions above.
Thank you for your help. If we work together, we can help preserve mentoring funding at $100 million and ensure that mentoring programs can continue to tap into these important funding streams.
Thank you for being a member of our advocacy network. With your help, MENTOR can continue to serve as an advocate for the expansion of mentoring for America's young people and a resource for mentors and mentoring initiatives nationwide.
To join the network, please visit http://www.mentoring.org/advocate.
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