For some children, having a caring adult mentor to turn to for guidance and encouragement can make the crucial difference between success and failure in life. In the US today, 17.6 million youngsters - nearly half the youth population -- want or need mentors to help them reach their full potential. Studies and experience confirm that quality mentoring works.
In her book, Stand by Me: The Risks and Rewards of Mentoring Today's Youth, Dr. Jean Rhodes of the University of Massachusetts concludes that mentors can influence young people in three important ways, by:
- enhancing social skills and emotional well-being;
- improving cognitive skills through dialogue and listening; and
- serving as a role model and advocate.
And in their book, Growing Up Poor, sociologists Terry Williams and William Kornblum noted that successful and unsuccessful youth from lower-income urban communities differ in one key way: the successful ones have mentors.
Yet, despite the great need for mentors, and the expansion of quality mentoring efforts, just 2.5 million youngsters are in formal mentoring relationships - which means 15 million still need mentors. National Mentoring Month
(NMM) works to help close this "mentoring gap" by institutionalizing our nation's commitment to mentoring.
We know we can close the gap. While the fact that 15 million young people need mentors seems staggering, we also know that - according to a recent National Mentoring Poll - 57 million adult Americans would seriously consider mentoring.
The poll, sponsored by AOL Time Warner Foundation on behalf of MENTOR, also found that nearly all mentors already in a formal mentoring relationship would recommend mentoring to others. With NMM's month-long focus on mentoring, we can tap into that vast pool of potential mentors and motivate them from simply thinking about mentoring to taking action.
For more information:
King County Mentoring Coalition
720 Second Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 461-5022 | mentoring@uwkc.org
Print version
Forward this Article
Subscribe to Newsletter
Previous Page
