MENTOR

About MENTOR

For more than 20 years, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) has been the lead champion for youth mentoring in the United States. MENTOR helps children by providing a public voice, developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide and promoting quality for mentoring through standards, cutting-edge research and state of the art tools.

MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership is the unifying champion for expanding quality youth mentoring relationships in the United States. MENTOR’s goal is to help young people by driving investment of time and money in high impact mentoring and promoting quality mentoring through the development and delivery of standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools.

MENTOR carries out this work in collaboration with a network of local MentoringPartnerships nationwide and more than 5,000 mentoring programs and volunteer centers throughout the country, serving more than three million children in all 50 states. MENTOR works to ensure our youngest citizens have the support they need through mentoring relationships to succeed at home, school, and ultimately, work.

Read MENTOR’s 2013 Mid-year Report to learn more about MENTOR’s current work and our effort to optimize our core operations to more efficiently and effectively leverage our resources to fulfill our mission.

What is MENTOR?

• MENTOR is the unifying champion for expanding quality youth mentoringrelationships in the United States.
• MENTOR works to support young people by providing a public voice, driving investment of time and money in high-impact mentoring and promoting quality mentoring through the development and delivery of standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools.
• MENTOR carries out this work in collaboration with its network of 28 localMentoring Partnerships nationwide and more than 5,000 mentoring programs and volunteer centers throughout the country, serving more than three million children in all 50 states. MENTOR is headquartered in Boston, MA.
• Currently, there are 18 million children in the United States who want and need a mentor, but only three million have one. MENTOR’s mission is to close that gap so that every one of those 15 million children has a caring adult in their life.
• MENTOR works with the private, public and nonprofit sectors to ensure our youngest citizens have the support they need through mentoring relationships to succeed at home, school and, ultimately, in the workforce.
• After rigorous screening for proof of impact and ability to scale, MENTOR was included as a member of the Social Impact 100 (S&I 100 Index /www.SI100.org), signifying that it is one of America’s top-performing 100 nonprofit organizations on this first-ever broad index of U.S. nonprofits.

What does MENTOR do?

• MENTOR develops quality resources to advance mentoring program effectiveness and innovation, while sharing knowledge among mentoring programs, and works to drive increased investment to sustain and grow mentoring programs nationwide.

• MENTOR launched the National Mentoring Summit in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and United Way Worldwide. The first historic Summit took place in January 2011 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Speakers included: First Lady Michelle Obama; Attorney General Eric Holder Jr; Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service Patrick Corvington; and Chief of Staff of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs Mike Strautmanis. The third National Mentoring Summit, was held on January 24-25, 2013, at The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., with the theme Mentoring Works: Inspire. Achieve. Advocate.
• MENTOR advocates for public funding for quality mentoring programs by influencing public policy, informing and unifying key advocates and increasing political support for mentoring. This has resulted in generating hundreds of millions of dollars for mentoring across the country.
• MENTOR established evidence-based national standards for mentoring programs through its publications, such as the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring^™.
• MENTOR partners with Dr. Jean Rhodes and the University of Massachusetts Boston on the Center for Evidence Based Mentoring, which includes The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring, a tool highlighting new research findings and current issues advancing the youth mentoring field.
• MENTOR led the effort for SafetyNET, which, for the first time ever, provided an affordable, nationwide FBI background check for adults working with young people. It serves as a model for a major bill before Congress, the Child Protection Improvements Act.

• MENTOR was chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its $30 million voucher-based demonstration grant to providers to support children in an innovative three-year initiative called Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver’s Choice.

• MENTOR joined with the Harvard School of Public Health to launch National Mentoring Month. Now in its 12^th year and with the Corporation for National and Community Service as a partner since 2006, the theme for National Mentoring Month 2013 is Mentoring Works!
• MENTOR created and operates the only national online Volunteer Referral System for adults looking to volunteer as mentors.

Who Leads MENTOR?

MENTOR’s board of directors includes Chairman Willem Kooyker (Chairman and CEO, Blenheim Capital Management LLC). MENTOR’s co-founders are Geoffrey T. Boisi (Chairman and CEO, Roundtable Investment Partners LLC) and Raymond G. Chambers (Founder and Chairman, Amelior Foundation),as well as many other leaders who donate their time and efforts to enhance the lives of our nation’s youth. MENTOR’s President and CEO is David Shapiro.

In addition, many luminaries, including politicians, celebrities and sports icons have been involved and honored by MENTOR over the years. Such notable figures include Maya Angelou, Tom Brokaw, David Brooks, Ray Charles, President Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Tom Cruise, Maureen Dowd, Clint Eastwood, Quincy Jones, Colin Powell, Cal Ripken, Jr, Bill Russell., Sting and Oprah Winfrey.