As students have settled back to school, many corporate youth mentoring programs are kicking-off a new program year.  They are hoping to address the fact that one in five students do not graduate high school on time, and many that do graduate are unprepared for college or careers. 

At the 2017 National Mentoring Summit in Washington D.C. next February 1-3, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, will spotlight non-profit and business collaboration effective practices for mentoring underserved students.

A longtime supporter of MENTOR, AT&T has been a pioneer in bringing together best in class organizations committed to student mentoring to collectively reach more students through mentoring.

AT&T and MENTOR have convened six non-profits: The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, iCouldBe, We Teach Science, Communities In Schools, Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG), and DECA to meet regularly over the past year. Through the collective impact convening, the groups share resources, troubleshoot programmatic and operational challenges, and serve as thought leaders in mentoring and youth development.

“We need to work together to close the mentoring gap – from non-profits, to schools to the business community,” said Jason Leiker, AVP Community Engagement, AT&T. “Through our collaboration with MENTOR, we’ve seen first-hand that by bringing together like-minded organizations to join efforts on behalf of students we can have a greater impact.”

Utilizing the effective practices they’ve gained, AT&T along with several of the non-profits will share their experience about the value of working across the non-profit and private sector at the Summit this year.

This work is part of AT&T Aspire, the company’s signature philanthropic initiative aimed at helping more students succeed in school and beyond. Through this initiative, its employees have provided more than 1 million hours of mentoring to students around the world.

“JAG has been fortunate to be a part of the Collective Impact Work, working with AT&T and reputable nonprofits from across the country,” states Janelle Duray, Vice President of Jobs for America’s Graduates.  “The sharing of best practices in mentoring and youth development from multiple perspectives has been of great benefit to JAG, particularly when considering future partnership opportunities to better serve our youth and future workforce.”

“We Teach Science has seen a great deal of value working within the collective impact network sponsored by AT&T. The group has allowed us to learn rapidly and efficiently from the experiences of other organizations and share our expertise with them. This process is accelerating the program evolution and refinement with all participants and uncovering new and unique collaborations between the organizations leading to even stronger student outcomes.” —Aragon Burlingham, President and Founder, We Teach Science Foundation.

AT&T’s collective impact session will be a part of the Philanthropic Partnerships Track, the intimate opportunity for corporations, foundations and individual donors to connect with their peers who are investing and engaging in youth mentoring.  The track will highlight the latest mentoring research and also feature workshops on topics such as mentoring young men of color, employee engagement, and a plenary panel entitled, “Advancing Educational Equity and Opportunity Through Relationships,” exploring how young people can build effective relationships with caring adults such as educators and corporate employee mentors.

For more information or to register for the 2017 National Mentoring Summit, click here.  Early bird pricing will be in effect until October 3.

About MENTOR
MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership is the unifying champion for quality youth mentoring in the United States. MENTOR’s mission is to close the “mentoring gap” and ensure our nation’s young people have the support they need through quality mentoring relationships to succeed at home, school, and ultimately, work. To achieve this, MENTOR collaborates with its network of affiliate Mentoring Partnerships and works to drive the investment of time and money into high impact mentoring programs and advance quality mentoring through the development and delivery of standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools. Connect with MENTOR on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

MENTOR

MENTOR

MENTOR is the unifying champion for expanding the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships across the United States. 30 years ago, MENTOR was created 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 structured 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 25 local Affiliates across the country. For more information, visit mentoring.org.

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