FI PARTNER IN NATIONAL MENTORING SUMMIT
Kenneth Braswell presenting young men at Green Tech Charter school in the "TIES NEVER BROKEN" Ceremony
October 27, 2011 (ALBANY, NEW YORK): FATHERS INCORPORATED joins major, national youth serving organizations in the second annual National Mentoring Summit to be held at The Fairmont in Washington, D.C., January 24 and 25, 2012. The Summit will bring together influential mentoring stakeholders from the public and private sectors to chart the mentoring field’s future, expand its circle of influence and focus the power of mentoring on a set of measurable outcomes.
The Summit will be hosted by MENTOR, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Harvard School of Public Health and United Way Worldwide, along with nearly 20 partner organizations. The two-day conference will bring together America’s foremost mentoring researchers, benefactors, policy makers and mentoring practitioners for workshops and information sharing.
The event also will provide the culminating moment for the 11th anniversary of National Mentoring Month, which is the national media campaign to raise awareness about mentoring produced by the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Thousands of programs in all 50 states participate in National Mentoring Month events.
“We are excited to be a part of 2012 National Mentoring Summit and it fits perfectly in our goal to explore ways to activate a synergy between the field of mentoring and responsible fatherhood. This partnership and collaboration of both fields can serve as a critical and timely solution to the millions of children in need of a mentor and the 24 million children awakening each morning absent their biological father,” says Kenneth Braswell, Executive Director of Fathers Incorporated.
The theme for this summit, “Invest in the Future: Mentor a Child” will coincide with the emphasis the United States is placing on corporations getting more engaged in mentoring America’s children. It is a reflection of the importance of First Lady Michelle Obama’s original call to action at the inaugural Summit via the Corporate Mentoring Challenge. The Corporate Mentoring Challenge is an initiative led by the Corporation for National and Community Service to encourage U.S. companies to launch mentoring programs, expand existing employee mentoring programs or provide resources to support local mentoring programs that help youth gain leadership skills, achieve their educational goals and increase their confidence.
Fathers Incorporated joins other Summit Partners, such as 100 Black Men of America, America’s Promise Alliance, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring at Portland State University, City Year, College Success Foundation, Communities In Schools, Concerned Black Men – National Organization, Dare Mighty Things, Inc., Mentoring USA, National Alliance of Faith and Justice, National Association of Foster Grandparents, National CARES Mentoring Movement, National Collaboration for Youth, National Dropout Prevention Center, and Point of Light Institute/HandsOn.
In addition, Congressional mentoring champions who have signed on to date as Honorary Host Committee members are: Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-MI),Sen. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R- AK), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) .
“More than 20 years ago, MENTOR was created as a catalyst to grow the mentoring movement in the United States, and today, mentoring is a large and vital field with more than 5,000 programs serving three million young people,” said MENTOR’s Chairman, Willem Kooyker. “This National Mentoring Summit will give mentoring stakeholders the opportunity to come together so we can continue our combined effort to invest, through quality mentoring, in the 15 million children who are still waiting for a caring adult in their lives.”
Summit participants will include representatives invited from MENTOR’s network of affiliated Mentoring Partnerships and from Host Committee and Summit Partner networks, as well as local National Mentoring Month partners.
For more information, contact MENTOR at summit@mentoring.org.