Inspire More Mentoring in Our Community

As we move toward the close of National Mentoring Month, we continue to encourage more people to become involved in our own community by joining the mentoring movement.

If you have been inspired by the Public Service Announcements by General Colin Powell or real mentors and mentees; by the multitude of media stories about the impacts mentoring can have on a young person's life at a critical time in his development; by the recruitment cards you may have seen around town; or by someone in your own network who posted "I Am a Mentor" on January 10 or who posted on Thank Your Mentor Day on January 17 or who served the community with a mentee on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Day of Service on January 21; but you're not ready to commit, we'd like you to consider the following questions:

1. How has mentoring made a difference in your life or in your community?
2. If you had a mentor, how did this person or people make you feel special? How did they help you get where you are today?
3. If you were a mentor, how did you change from this relationship?
4. What do you think are challenges young people in our community face today?
5. What do you think are strengths possessed by youth in our community today?
6. Who is responsible for making sure young people become happy, healthy, successful, and productive young adults?
7. How can we work together in our community to make sure that no child is left behind and that every youth feels like she has something to offer this world?
8. How can you help - can you personally volunteer time, donate money or in-kind services or goods, or connect us to more opportunities?
9. How can people, companies, and institutions in your network help?
10. How can we let more people know that a small investment in time now becomes worth it when you see a young person thrive over time?

It's time to pass it on and become a mentor to a young person today! 

TE Connectivity: Making a Difference with Mentoring

Last week Friends for Youth visited TE Connectivity to continue spreading the word about mentoring for National mentoring Month! 

We would like to send them a BIG thanks for their aid in helping us help the youth in our communities!

Martin Luther King Day of Service
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, January 21, 2013, is an ideal opportunity to highlight the importance of mentoring. Use the day to honor mentors in your community, recruit new mentors, provide training to mentoring programs or encourage mentor pairs to serve together. Visit www.mlkday.gov for more information, toolkits, and curriculums.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"

Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities.

The MLK Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, the President's national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.

Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service aims to transform the federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice. Instead of being just another day off from school or work, the holiday gives people of all ages and backgrounds a chance to come together to strengthen their community, bridge social barriers and move our nation closer to the "beloved community" that Dr. King envisioned.

There are several ways to help. For example, your organization can:

• Sponsor and organize a single service project.
• Sponsor and organize a variety of service projects.
• Form teams to volunteer and find a MLK Day service project in your area.

10 Activities Mentors and Mentees Can Do Together to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Legacy

1. Recruit and train volunteers to be mentors or tutors
2. Host discussions about Dr. King's life and teachings and principles of non-violence or community challenges and ways to address them
3. Provide job readiness training in resume writing, interview skills, or dressing for success
4. Provide food assistance by serving meals at a homeless shelter, bringing meals to homebound neighbors, or organizing a food donation drive
5. Improve children’s quality of life by building a playground, running a day camp for children with working parents, or devising craft projects for children in hospitals
6. Provide assistance to families and neighbors by helping low-income families find free tax preparation services and take advantage of the earned income tax credit; shoveling elderly neighbors' walkways, clearing leaves, or helping with other yard maintenance; participating in or create a neighborhood watch program
7. Improve health outcomes by arranging a health fair, organizing a blood donor drive, or registering bone marrow and organ donors
8. Beautify the community by removing graffiti from a building and paint a mural; creating community green spaces by planting trees, grass, and flowers; or reclaiming a park or abandoned space for community use
9. Prepare the community for emergency and crisis situations by distributing fire safety information and check for working smoke detectors, making and distributing disaster preparedness kits, or hosting workshops on how to prevent foreclosure in communities disproportionately affected
10. Keep the community connected by teaching neighbors how to surf the Internet and use email, making a public space accessible for the disabled neighbors, or developing your own ideas by considering your community’s particular needs

Davis Polk & Wardwell: Supporting Mentoring

Friends for Youth would like to give a big shout out to Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP for inviting us over to speak about the benefits of mentoring during National Mentoring Month! It only goes to show that no matter what you do, ANYONE can become a mentor!

Thank you, Davis Polk!

Thanks, Google!

Yesterday Friends for Youth was at Google headquarters to speak to employees about the power of mentoring. Attendees learned about the difficulties youth today face and how mentoring can help prepare youth for those challenges. Those attendees who were interested got started in the application process!

Thank you, Google, for supporting mentoring right here on the Peninsula.

THANK YOUR MENTOR DAY IS THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013

As a highlight of National Mentoring Month 2013, Thank Your Mentor Day™ will be celebrated January 17. On that day, many Americans will reach out to thank or honor those individuals who encouraged and guided them, and had a lasting, positive impact on their lives.

Thank Your Mentor Day promotes "Four Ways to Honor Your Mentor"

1. Contact your mentor directly to express your appreciation;
2. Pass on what you received by becoming a mentor to a young person in your community;
3. Make a financial contribution to a local mentoring program; and,
4. Write a tribute to your mentor for posting on the Who Mentored You? website.

You can download a Thank you card from the Campaign Marketing Materials page.

Here are 10 more ways programs can thank their mentors:

Have mentees make and send Thank-You notes to their mentors’ place of employment or home. Highlight mentors in your program’s newsletter or have your Executive Director write an Op-Ed for your local newspaper/feed highlighting the importance of NMM and thanking mentors directly. Ask your local, state, or national representatives to produce Certificates of Appreciation for each of your mentors and hold an award ceremony or other fun activity with food and entertainment for your mentors. Plan a “You Take the Cake” thank you gathering in the office with cupcakes and punch, inviting mentors and mentees as a way to thank mentors. Hold a raffle for gift cards and prizes for your mentors or ask a special donor to contribute gift cards for all your mentors. Plan a study break with food and refreshments on campus to thank your undergraduate and graduate student mentors. Mail or hand out special mementos (water bottles, t-shirts, pens, etc.) that display thanks as a gift to your mentors. Deliver breakfast to your mentors at your mentoring sites. Hold a special open house/mentor appreciating night where you can thank mentors and share more information about your program with potential volunteers. Post a thank you message on your social media accounts and post a thank you message on your mentors’ accounts, if you’re linked. Thanks to Mass Mentoring Partnership for several of these ideas.

*Thank Your Mentor Day™ is an initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Presidential Proclamation Supports National Mentoring Month

President Obama signed the official document proclaiming January 2013 as National Mentoring Month. It reads, in part, 

 

"Mentors know that helping a child unlock their full potential begins with care, guidance, and support – which is why my Administration is proud to celebrate mentorship nationwide through programs that help young people see the strength within themselves… A supportive mentor can mean the difference between struggle and success. As we mark this important occasion, I encourage all Americans to spend time as a mentor and help lift our next generation toward their hopes and dreams."

View the proclamation and feel free to use it promotionally in your community!

Happy National Mentoring Month!

It's a new year, and a new National Mentoring Month! Friends for Youth is happy to partner with organizations around the country in celebrating this important event.

Now is the time to get involved with the world of mentoring, the time to stand up and recognize that we as a community have a responsibility to support our most fragile young people. National Mentoring Month recognizes this call, and it could not be more timely. With more than 60 youth waiting for mentors here on the Peninsula, we can do a lot right here at home to better meet the needs of the kids who go to our schools, who spend time in our parks, who attend our churches, and who represent the future of our communities and our nation.

Mentoring works.

To find out how you can make a difference, email Jonathan at jonathan@friendsforyouth.org, or call 650-482-2867.