January is National Mentoring Month
Who Mentored You? Thank them … Pass it on. Mentor a Child.
Dear Community Member:
Having a caring adult, a mentor, to turn to for guidance and encouragement can make the crucial difference between success and failure in the life of a child. In the US today, 17.6 million youngsters -- nearly half the youth population -- want or need mentors to help them reach their full potential. Currently, there are over 700 youth in Fairfax County waiting to be matched with mentors through our network of mentoring providers. This does not include those youth who are not yet involved with a formal mentoring program.Research has shown that introducing a mentor into a child’s life can have a powerful impact, preventing drug abuse and youth violence while greatly enhancing a young person’s prospects for leading a fulfilling and productive life. A study conducted by Public/Private Ventures that measured the impact of mentoring found that children with mentors:
- Were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
- Were 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
- Were 53% less likely to skip school
- Were 33% less likely to engage in school violence
- Had improved school attendance and performance, and better attitudes toward completing school work
- Had improved peer and family relationships
Yet, despite the great need for mentors, and the expansion of quality mentoring efforts, just 2.5 million youngsters nation-wide are in formal mentoring relationships - which means 15 million still need mentors. The continual challenge faced by mentoring organizations is mentor recruitment.
The Fairfax Mentoring Partnership, an initiative of the Fairfax Partnership for Youth, aims to address this challenge by supporting our county-wide network of mentoring organizations to ensure that every young person in Fairfax County who wants or needs a mentor will have a caring, involved, and effective mentor. To this end, the Fairfax Mentoring Partnership is the lead partner conducting the local awareness campaign during National Mentoring Month.
The goals of National Mentoring Month are to:
- Raise awareness of mentoring in its various forms;
- Recruit individuals to mentor, especially in programs that have a waiting list of young people; and
- Promote the rapid growth of mentoring by recruiting organizations to engage their constituents in mentoring.
The Harvard Mentoring Project and the National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) are leading the National Mentoring Month initiative; sponsors include nonprofit organizations, media companies, and government agencies. National Mentoring Month is also supported by President George W. Bush, the US Congress, and state governors and mayors across the country. To find out more about the national campaign, go to www.WhoMentoredYou.org
Were there people in your life who encouraged you and helped you become who you are today? Thank them during National Mentoring Month and “pass it on…” Please consider becoming a mentor.
Kimberly T. Monti
Program Director