The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is joining the Coaches Mentoring Challenge to expand the reach of this successful campaign to connect youth with caring adult mentors. MENTOR’s recent report, The Mentoring Effect, found through a nationally representative survey of young adults ages 18-21 that mentoring is linked to improved academic, social and economic prospects. These benefits to youth ultimately strengthen our communities and our nation.
The report also found that one in three young people will grow up without having a mentor.
The Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge is an annual campaign to connect more youth to mentors that began as a friendly challenge to Nebraska and Kansas fans in 2008. Since, coaches from Big 12 and Big Ten schools have joined and in 2013, nearly 9,000 new volunteers were recruited.
This year, the effort has expanded to include coaches from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Nebraska, with the goal to recruit 15,000 new adult volunteers to mentor in their respective states. The Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge kicked off on August 1st and runs through November 30th, with final results released during the first week in December. Learn more about the Teammates Mentoring Program
or how to reach out to the more than 600 Lincoln students who are still waiting for a mentor at www.lincolnteammates.org.