Mass Mentoring Partnership (MMP) administers a state-funded grant program each year called the Mentoring Matching Grants .This year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts allocated $350,000 to MMP, which has been distributed to 27 programs across the Commonwealth to assist them in their work of matching and professionally supporting youth with volunteer mentors.

Each year we advocate for increasing this critical source of funding, which is the only state funding dedicated specifically to mentoring programs. This year, though, we have been fighting off cuts to the program, which faces a $100,000 reduction for next year if we are not able to convince members of the budget conference committee that it is a worthy investment.

As MMP continues to advocate and organize others around this funding, we wanted to share the story of a state house staffer with a personal connection to mentoring. She shared this story with us in the hopes that it would move others to rally around our cause of bringing more state resources to mentoring programs in Massachusetts.

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The night Jackie and I met we played the board game Clue. Blue was my favorite color, so I was Miss Peacock. Jackie was my “Big Sister.” We were matched through the mentoring program Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

Courtney Elgart, staff director for State Representative Tom Sannicandro

My childhood wasn’t great. Both of my parents struggled with addiction and its accompanying demons. My mother wasn’t around a lot and my father thought I would benefit from a healthy relationship with an adult woman. So he signed me up for a Big Sister and, when I was six, Jackie entered my life.

All week I looked forward to my afternoons with Jackie. We would go to the arcade or the ice rink. More than having fun, Jackie allowed me to be a kid. It was the first relationship I had with an adult where those roles, adult and child, were clearly delineated.

A year after we met things took a turn for the worse at home. The Department of Social Services decided I needed to be removed from my home. Jackie and her partner stepped up and let me come stay with them. It was supposed to be a few weeks; I never left. After fostering me for a few years, Jackie and her partner adopted me at age 11.

While my story’s ending is atypical, the critical role my mentor played isn’t. Jackie showed me a new world of possibilities. She taught me how to have healthy relationships; she taught me responsibility. Jackie was my rock – stability in the often chaotic world of my home life. She also taught me the value of serving others, the supreme importance of giving back to your community. That’s how I ended up where I am today, a public servant, working in the Massachusetts Legislature.

We all have mentors in our life that guide us, shape us, and help us reach our potential. For at-risk kids, like I was, these mentors are even more important. Supporting mentoring programs like Big Brothers, Big Sisters is a critical investment in our kids’ futures. Mentoring is important to each kid whose life is changed by the relationship. But that’s not all: mentoring strengthens communities by helping youth become the best they can be through giving them access to the resources and support to make their dreams a reality.

Want to support mentoring in Massachusetts? Please join MMP and the mentoring field in Massachusetts in our fight to preserve funding to the Mentoring Line Item. Contact your legislators to voice your support and add yourself to our advocacy list to receive updates and action alerts.

The discussions will focus on different methods of engaging diverse populations, maximizing staff capacity, and online recruitment.  We believe that programs will be able to contribute and collaborate in an effort to build the capacity of the mentoring field and play a significant role in helping each other better serve their communities. Participants will have the opportunity to showcase successful strategies, as well as exchange ideas and learn from colleagues from across the state.

Mass Mentoring Partnership and the Highland Street Corps will host Table Talks: Diversifying Your Recruitment Efforts at two different dates and locations – Boston and Worcester.  Join us over a light breakfast while we collaborate and discuss effective strategies for recruiting diverse mentors and strengthening programs.  In return, you will be able to strengthen your agency and strengthen the community.

Monday, June 3, 9:45 a.m. – Noon (please note that registration is closed for this event)
Roxbury Community College
Building 1 (Media Arts) – The Great Room
1234 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02120

Wednesday, June 5, 9:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
UMass Medical
Room S2-352
55 N Lake Avenue
Worcester, MA 01605
RSVP here

For more information please contact Ly Nguyen at lnguyen@massmentors.org.

The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley is one of our terrific Champions of Mentoring 2013 honorees. A long-time strong supporter and advocate of mentoring, they provide financial support and resources for more than 30 mentoring organizations across the region. In 2012 alone, they supported almost 7,000 youth in mentoring relationships in communities with the greatest need, making these youth less likely to engage in risky behaviors and more likely to graduate from high school. Many mentoring programs would not be able to perform their greatest work – supporting youth with quality mentoring relationships – without the support of the United Way.

Additionally, the United Way is a vocal advocate in strengthening our community, raising awareness of the need for more mentors and creating collaborations like the Lynn Mentoring Network to enable programs to build the capacity to serve more youth in need.

The United Way has been a strong supporter of Mass Mentoring over the years, helping MMP to provide training and technical assistance to help programs reach higher standards of quality through their Quality-Based Membership process. Through a range of powerful contributions to youth mentoring, the United Way has proven time and time again, that they are committed to helping all youth reach their potential and strengthening communities through quality mentoring and support services. 

We are proud to call them Champions of Mentoring on behalf of programs and thousands of matches across the state.

Three-time The Boston Marathon®/Team MMP runner Joanne Quinlan-Roberts is one of our Champions of Mentoring in 2013, and we are thrilled to honor her commitment to fueling the movement for quality youth mentoring.

Joanne is deeply invested in mentoring, and has sat on the board at Family Service, Inc. of Lawrence for almost 20 years. When she applied to run for Team MMP in 2011, she said she always wanted “to support a smaller charity, where I knew (how the money) would be spent. It has been the perfect connection to run for Mass Mentoring.”

Joanne, the East Regional Controller for KPMG, has raised close to $17,000 over the last three years in support of quality youth mentoring, and feels great about her experience as a charity runner.

“I felt supported by Coach Rick (Muhr) and felt so connected to MMP, and how the money we raised meant so much to so many people,” she says.

For her long-standing support of the youth mentoring movement and for raising mentoring’s profile through her Boston Marathon commitment, Joanne’s Champions of Mentoring 2013 honor is well-deserved.

Three-time The Boston Marathon®/Team MMP runner Sherée Dunwell is one of our Champions of Mentoring in 2013, and we couldn’t be more pleased to honor her for her invaluable commitment.

A Lynn native,  Sherée found inspiration in Mass Mentoring’s mission of fueling the movement to expand quality mentoring for youth. She felt that as a child of a single mother, she would have benefited from having a mentor herself.

“The (first) marathon for me was a personal challenge, and the beginning of a new healthy life for myself,” she says. “More importantly, however, I wanted my running to benefit kids in true need…I have always wanted to make it a part of my life’s mission to see to it that kids who are at-risk understand that the sky is the limit.”

Although she faced some challenges while training for and completing her first marathon in 2011, not only did she not give up, but her perseverance helped her raise more than $8,000 in her first year. Encouraged, she  aimed higher and set ambitious fundraising goals for her ensuing marathons in 2012 and 2013.  Cumulatively, she’s raised more than $32,000 in support of quality youth mentoring.

“I’ve become so unbelievably inspired and moved by this wonderful organization…and the wonderful mentors and mentees who’ve shared their stories,” she says.

Sherée’s generosity and desire to help youth succeed is evident beyond her marathon participation. While in college, she taught voice and dance lessons to underprivileged kids. Now, she’s a volunteer at the RFK Children’s Action Corps.

We know this is not the last we’ll see of Sherée. Her belief in the power of quality youth mentoring runs deep, and not only are we thankful to count her as a friend of mentoring, but we’re proud to honor her as one of our 2013 Champions of Mentoring.

Read more about Sherée’s marathon experiences at her blog and check out our previous post about Sherée.