Mass Mentoring Partnership Inc

Programs: Mmp works to drive increased resources to the mentoring field from the public and private sectors by raising awareness of mentoring as a youth development strategy that can help address social problems such as educational attainment and college readiness, workforce readiness, youth violence, and breaking the school to prison pipeline. Mmp provides training for mentoring program staff on guiding principles of state level advocacy and mobilizes program partners in advocacy campaigns that increase state level funding that directly impact mentoring resources. In collaboration with our network of youth mentoring programs, we successfully maintained funding for the mentoring matching grants program in the massachusetts state budget at $500,000 during a critical juncture in the budget process when several other programs related to youth services were cut. A key component of this effort to secure funding for mentoring programs was our annual youth mentoring day at the state house where over 250 supporters attended and over 60 constituent visits with legislators and youth were held. The primary goal of this line item is to increase the number of high-quality mentoring matches through grants to public and private agencies as one approach to close the persistent achievement gap among massachusetts youth, particularly among students of color. Mass mentoring partnership administers the state mentoring matching grants subsidy agreement on behalf of the department of elementary and secondary education. Mmp conducts a competitive rfp process among the state's mentoring programs. Resources are also driven to the field through a partnerships formed with sport teams, cultural institutions, museums, and other family-friendly recreational venues, leading to the donation of tickets and entrance document that are then provided by mmp to the mentor-mentee matches at mentoring programs throughout massachusetts. In regard to mass mentoring partnership's policy advocacy, the organization has worked to increase visibility around other policy efforts that will systemically impact the availability of developmental relationships for young people in school. The current efforts focused on graduation coaches as a remedy for high dropout rates among teens across the state. Graduation coaches are professionals with youth development and academic support expertise providing the target population with graduation plans including academic, career, and postsecondary goals. These mentoring relationships have positive impacts on two early indicators of high school drop-out: high levels of absenteeism and recurring behavior problems in school. With outreach to legislators, partnering with organizations and key stakeholders, mass mentoring successfully garnered support and raised awareness for this important policy initiative.

the highland street americorps ambassadors of mentoring program places service members at mentoring programs and youth-serving organizations statewide to strengthen and improve programs, allowing them to serve more youth and ultimately contributing to a more effective mentoring field. The americorps ambassadors of mentoring program enables mmp to place 25 americorps members in 22 sites to build their human capital and resources to support and develop organizational capacity, resilience, and directly contributing to improved outcomes for the youth served. The 2017-2018 members served almost 40,000 hours at 24 sites across massachusetts. More than 1,000 volunteer mentors were recruited, screened, and matched through the direct efforts of the americorps ambassadors of mentoring. Through their volunteer service at these mentoring programs, over 3,500 youth were the direct beneficiaries of the ambassadors of mentoring. This year, mmp was able to have both full and part time members.

mmp works to drive increased resources to the mentoring field from the public and private sectors by raising awareness of mentoring as a youth development strategy that can help address social problems such as educational attainment and college readiness, workforce readiness, youth violence, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, and breaking the school to prison pipeline. Mmp provides training for mentoring program staff on guiding principles of state level advocacy and mobilizes program partners in advocacy campaigns that increase state level funding that directly impact mentoring resources, and drive systemic policy solutions that impact youth across the state. In collaboration with our expansive network of over 270 youth mentoring programs, we successfully maintained finding for the mentoring matching grants program in the massachusetts state budget at $500,000 during a critical juncture in the budget process when several other programs related to youth services were affected by 9c cuts and the state was addressing an immense revenue shortfall. A key component of this effort to maintain our level-funding for mentoring programs was our annual youth mentoring day at the state house where over 250 supporters attended and over 50 constituent visits with legislators, youth, and mentoring program staff were held. The primary goal of this line item is to increase the number of high-quality mentoring matches through grants to public and private agencies as one approach to close the persistent achievement gap among massachusetts youth, particularly among students of color. Mass mentoring partnership administers the state mentoring matching grants subsidy agreement on behalf of the department of elementary and secondary education. Mmp conducts a competitive rfp process among the state's mentoring programs, and 32 programs were selected to receive this funding. Resources are also driven to the field through partnership formed with sports teams, cultural institutions, museums, and other family-friendly recreational venues, leading to the donation of tickets and entrance documents that are then provided by mmp to the mentor-mentee matches at mentoring programs throughout massachusetts. Regarding mass mentoring partnership's policy advocacy, the organization has worked to increase public awareness around specific bills that will systematically impact the increased availability of developmental relationships and social-emotional supports for young people in school. The current efforts focused on graduation coaches as a remedy for high dropout rates among teens across the state, and two bills titled an act relative to dropout prevention and recovery (h. 2056; s. 222). Graduation coaches are professionals with youth development and academic support expertise providing the target population with graduation plans including academic, career, and postsecondary goals. These mentoring relationships have positive impacts on two early indicators of high school drop-out: high levels of absenteeism and recurring behavior problems in school. With outreach to legislators, partnering with organizations and key stakeholders, mass mentoring successfully garnered support and raised awareness for this important policy initiative, while also making recommendations to alter language in two bills filed by the chairs of the joint committee of education to shift the nature of the role of a graduation coach from a strictly academic one to a wraparound support that focuses on the holistic wellbeing of students, which were incorporated by the house and senate chairwomen.