National Mentoring Month - Who Mentors Business?

During January Mentoring Month different celebrities and media will be talking about Mentoring and how it enriches the lives of youth and volunteers who become connected through organized mentoring programs.

I found this graphic in a planning tool titled Business Engagement Shareholder's Wheel. This is one of a series of training materials provided by Corporate Voices for Working Families.

As we celebrate mentoring, I encourage volunteers to organize study groups within their companies, colleges and faith groups, so others can learn how important it is to provide a steady flow of resources to support high-quality, constantly improving, tutor/mentor programs in every part of every city in America.

The Leadership Ideas that we share through the Tutor/Mentor Connection are intended to encourage people who can provide time, talent and dollars, as well as jobs and other types of community support, on a proactive basis, to all the different tutor/mentor programs operating in the same space.

Instead of thousands of non-profits trying to find a few donors, how about innovating ways that thousands of donors are reach out to find ways to support the non-school tutoring/mentoring programs that enable these connections between youth and volunteers to take place?

In Chicago you can use the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to search for programs by zip code or by sections of the city. On the National Mentoring Partnership web site you can enter a zip code and find programs throughout the country.

Cabrini Connections is one of those programs in Chicago that could benefit from more consistent donor support throughout the year. If volunteers carry this message back to their networks they can generate this type of support with the stories they tell about their own mentoring experiences.