General Colin L. Powell leads January Mentor Mobilization

January is National Mentoring Month and in TV, radio and print media national celebrities like General Colin L. Powell, Grammy Award-winning R&B recording artist Usher and music icon Quincy Jones, and a variety of other celebrities will be raising attention and mobilizing volunteers and leaders to support mentoring activities throughout the country.

Follow these links to read the Press Release, see featured celebrities, and view actions that individuals, companies, civic and faith groups, can take to support volunteer-based mentoring programs throughout the country.

I've led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program for more than 30 years and currently lead the Cabrini Connections program in Chicago. I strongly support this campaign and hope that the media messages will motivate more of our private and public sector leaders to spend time learning more about how they can use their leadership strategically to support the growth of volunteer-based mentoring, and tutoring, programs.

I've written about the Mentoring Month, and General Powell's leadership before. Thus, I encourage you to visit the links below to see what I mean by strategic, and how Generals should be using MAPS, to point to where tutor/mentor programs are most needed, and to point reinforcements to the programs that are already in these areas, and need consistent, flexible operating support to build and maintain long-term mentoring connections with hard-to-reach youth.

On the National Mentoring Month Page is a featured article on Drop Out Prevention. Read the articles I've posted here and here and follow the links that illustrate tutor/mentor programs as a workforce development strategy.

View the charts that show the PUSH/PULL relationship of programs that PUSH kids to make good decisions, and business strategies that link kids to jobs and PULL them through school toward jobs and careers. Read more about Mentoring as a Workforce Development Strategy here and here.

Finally, read the essay titled ROLE OF LEADERS. If the leader of your church, company, university, hospital, or community does not make a long-term commitment to use resources strategically, I think most of the media attention generated by this year's Mentoring Month will be just more money and time spent with too little results in return.