Photo Courtesy of The National Mentoring Partnership
The administration marked National Mentoring Month by announcing the NYC Youth Mentoring Initiative.
By Forum Staff
The City recently marked National Mentoring Month by launching the NYC Youth Mentoring Initiative to increase mentoring opportunities for high school youth across the five boroughs.
According to Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYC Chief Service Officer Paula Garvin, the initiative aims to establish mentoring programs in 400 City high schools by 2022, annually engaging 14,000 New Yorkers as volunteer mentors to 40,000 high school students. According to the administration, the YMI will support the City’s Equity and Excellence plan to achieve 80 percent high school graduation and two-thirds college-readiness rates by 2026.
“New Yorkers know our greatest strength is our people, so we must work together to invest in our future,” de Blasio said. “The NYC Youth Mentoring Initiative is about reaching more high school youth across the city with positive mentoring relationships that can shape the path to their future and ours. I want to thank the many committed partners involved in this multi-sector collaboration, as well as the thousands of New Yorkers who already mentor young people in our City. I ask that you inspire someone else in your life to visit nyc.gov/service and become a personal champion to a young person in their community.”
According to the City, the NYC Youth Mentoring Initiative is a collaborative effort by NYC Service, the Department of Education, Department of Youth & Community Development, Center for Youth Employment, the Young Men’s Initiative and community-based mentoring organizations across the five boroughs. As a proven youth development strategy which contributes to positive decision making, education achievements and successful career and college choices, mentoring will be encouraged among more City high school youth while also encouraging more New Yorkers to step up as mentors to these students. From the current baseline of approximately 20,000 high school mentees and 9,000 volunteer mentors, the administration has pledged that the Youth Mentoring Initiative will double the number of mentees and increase the number of volunteer mentors by 55 percent over the next five years.
According to the administration, the growth from 20,000 to 40,000 high school mentees will be driven by the following:
- Established mentoring programs in at least 400 high schools through the expansion of current community-based organization mentoring programs, launch of new high school mentoring programs by CBOs, and expansion of College/Career Awareness mentoring as well as “one day programs” for a total of 33,000 high school mentees.
- Expansion of embedded mentoring programs in DYCD workforce development programs for a total of 3,000 high school mentees.
- Expansion of CBO programs at CBO centers to 6,000 high school mentees.
The growth from 9,000 volunteer mentors to 14,000 will be driven by campaigns to reach and engage the following:
- Individual New Yorkers through groups, associations, colleges/universities and faith-based organizations with a neighborhood focus.
- Corporations and small businesses.
- City employees.
The City has indicated that the initiative will both expand existing mentoring programs and focus on launching new programs in Young Men’s Initiative priority communities, including South Jamaica, East Harlem, South Bronx, Brownsville, East New York, and Staten Island’s North Shore.
