MENTOR Announces Celebration of 2024 National Mentoring Month

BOSTON, January 8, 2024 (Newswire.com) - MENTOR, the nation’s unifying champion of the mentoring movement, announced that January will once again be celebrated as National Mentoring Month. Launched in 2002, the month represents a time for Americans to celebrate the power of relationships, drive meaningful change, and expand quality mentoring opportunities for the nation's youth.

President Joseph R. Biden released a presidential proclamation officially honoring National Mentoring Month, noting, “The greatness of a nation is measured in part by how it prepares its next generation to succeed. Ours is a great Nation, and together, as mentors, we can each change a young person’s life for the better — and with it, help guarantee our country a future of unlimited possibilities.”

MENTOR CEO Jermaine Myrie, who joined the organization in April of 2023, commented, “The past few years have been historically challenging for young people. This National Mentoring Month, in particular, is a time for caring adults to look to the future and, in the spirit of inspiring change, lean in with purpose and shared commitment to support youth in their communities.”

While January as a whole serves as a national call to action for uplifting and joining the mentoring movement, National Mentoring Month also includes days dedicated to specific facets of mentoring:

• January 9: I Am A Mentor Day
• January 15: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
• January 17: International Mentoring Day
• January 24-26: National Mentoring Summit, Washington, D.C.
• January 25: Thank Your Mentor Day

This National Mentoring Month also marks the one-year anniversary of the release of Who Mentored You?, an expansive research report on the state of the mentoring movement in the United States. The report’s findings draw from surveys of more than 2,600 Americans across generations. Key findings include:

• Two-thirds of those under 40 years of age report that they have had a mentor at some point. Despite this, there has been a slight decline in mentoring in recent years, and today’s 18-21-year-olds are 4% less likely to have been mentored than their 22-24-year-old peers.
• Young people in lower income brackets are the least likely to have mentors; however, equitable access to mentoring across socioeconomic lines is improving over time.
• American adults give their mentors more than half of the credit (56%) for the success they have achieved in life.

This National Mentoring Month, MENTOR is encouraging adults to pledge their commitment to the growing national mentoring movement. For more information, visit mentoring.org/nmm.

ABOUT MENTOR:

MENTOR is the unifying champion for expanding the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships across the United States. More than 30 years ago, MENTOR was created to expand opportunities for young people by building a youth mentoring field and movement. The result: more than a tenfold 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 24 local Affiliates across the country. For more information, visit mentoring.org.

Source: MENTOR