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National Mentoring Month provides an opportunity to celebrate and honor the importance of quality mentoring programs and the role that mentors fill, while also recruiting new supporters and volunteers. In January 2014, MENTOR (The National Mentoring Partnership) released a report that includes the first-ever nationally representative survey of young people on the topic of mentoring. The report details the direct link between quality mentoring programs and improved academic, social and economic prospects, and well as positive outcomes for the communities in which these programs operate.

The MENTOR report found that young people who were at risk for not completing high school but who had a mentor reported higher educational aspirations and matriculation into post-secondary education, as well as greater engagement in positive activities. These students were:

• 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor.

• 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities.

• More than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.

• 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.

• Nearly nine in ten respondents who had a mentor said they are now interested in becoming mentors.

YOU, Inc.’s Therapeutic Mentoring program is an innovative, community-based program for children with a clinical diagnosis that calls for intensive training in daily living, social, or communication skills. In many cases, these children are best helped not in a clinical setting, but rather in the settings that can be most difficult for them, such as their schools, family or foster homes.

The Therapeutic Mentoring program brings these services to children literally “where they’re at” – whether it be in the school cafeteria, at their after-school activities, around the dinner table – anywhere that thoughtful but firm coaching can help them to overcome their limitations and improve their overall social functioning. Mentors work side-by-side with children in these environments, providing guidance and training around topics such as conflict resolution, self-management skills, problem solving tactics, and age-appropriate behaviors.

For more information about YOU, Inc.’s Therapeutic Mentoring program, click here.

For more information about National Mentoring Month, visit http://www.nationalmentoringmonth.org/