Last Updated on January 7, 2024 by Stand UP Cass County
Logansport – January is National Mentoring Month, and this year Stand UP Cass County is celebrating the annual campaign aimed at expanding quality mentoring opportunities to connect more of our community’s young people with caring adults by sharing mentoring messages all month on their social media outlets, as well as during community meetings/events. They will continue to promote campaigns such as Talk They Hear You and frameworks like the Developmental Assets. For tips and advice on how to be a mentor please visit their website or social media platforms. Anyone can be a mentor!
“We just want our community to truly understand what it means to be a mentor to our youth. Anyone is capable of this. Anyone can create an impact and this could be the impact a child needs to lead a successful, healthy, safe, life. Your words and actions have an impact on our youth, we need to assure those messages are positive and encouraging.” says Nikki Malott
Research shows that mentors play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to make positive choices, attend and engage in school, and reduce or avoid negative behaviors. In turn, these young people are:
- 55% more likely to be enrolled in college.
- 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities.
- 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.
- More than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.
Yet, the same research shows that one in three young people in our country will grow up without a mentor.
National Mentoring Month is the time of year where engagement from community members interested in becoming a mentor is highest. This year, with the support of the mentoring community, we are encouraging the public to go beyond just digital engagement and become involved in real life. Mentoring relationships are at their best when connections are made between a caring adult and a young person who knows that someone is there to help guide them through life choices.
In our community, people can participate in events: encourage youth to attend events and activities in their community, share mentoring messages with other adults you may know, volunteer at a local organization/business that serves youth, encourage and uplift our young people, give them a reason to take pride in themselves and their community.
National Mentoring Month is led by MENTOR, the national unifying champion of the mentoring movement. Each year since its launch in 2002, the campaign has enjoyed the strong support of the President and the United States Congress. Other well-known supporters include the late Maya Angelou, Clint Eastwood, Senator John McCain, Quincy Jones, General Colin L. Powell, Cal Ripken Jr., the late Bill Russell (MENTOR founding board member), and Usher. In 2016, President Barack Obama’s office shared a National Mentoring Month press release highlighting the crucial role that mentors play in young people’s lives. Last year, United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona played a key role in the event.
To become a mentor, go to mentoring.org and take the first step via the Mentoring Connector. To learn more about the role mentoring plays in our community, visit www.standupcasscounty.org
ABOUT Stand UP Cass County – Our coalition, STAND UP Cass County, provides education and training.
We partner with others to raise awareness about positive youth development, design programs and campaigns for parents and mentors, host events, change laws and policies, and bring more resources to primary prevention. Consider joining us in our efforts. Visit our website listed above or email nikki@ysainc.org.
ABOUT MENTOR
MENTOR is the unifying champion for expanding the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships across the United States. MENTOR was created more than 30 years ago to expand opportunities for young people by building a youth mentoring field and movement. The result: a more than 10-fold increase in young people in mentoring relationships. Today, MENTOR is the expert voice representing a movement that meets young people everywhere they are – from schools, to workplaces, and beyond. MENTOR operates in collaboration with 24 Affiliates providing local servant leadership and expertise across the nation, with several more in development.
SOURCE: News release from Stand UP Cass County