Recognizing January 2024 as National Mentoring Month.

Recognizing January 2024 as National Mentoring Month Whereas the goals of National Mentoring Month are to raise awareness of and celebrate the powerful impact of mentoring relationships, recruit new mentors, and encourage institutions to integrate quality mentoring into their policies, practices, and programs; Whereas quality mentoring fosters positive life and social skills, promotes self-esteem, bolsters academic achievement and college access, supports career exploration, and nurtures youth leadership development; Whereas mentoring happens in many settings, including community-based programs, elementary and secondary schools, colleges, government agencies, religious institutions, and the workplace, and in various ways, including formal mentoring matches and informal relationships with teachers, coaches, neighbors, faith leaders, and others; Whereas effective mentoring of underserved and vulnerable populations helps individuals confront challenges and display improved mental health and social-emotional well-being; Whereas studies have shown that incorporating culture and heritage into mentoring programs can improve academic outcomes and increase community engagement, especially for Alaska Native and American Indian youth; Whereas mentoring encourages positive youth development and smart daily behaviors, such as finishing homework and having healthy social interactions, and has a positive impact on the growth and success of a young person; Whereas mentors help young people set career goals and can help connect mentees to industry professionals to train for and find jobs; Whereas mentoring programs generally have a significant, positive impact on youth academic achievement, school connectedness and engagement, and educational success, which lead to outcomes such as improved attendance, grades and test scores, and classroom behavior; Whereas research has found that young people facing risk of not completing high school but who had a mentor were, compared with their peers, more likely to enroll in college, to participate regularly in sports or extracurricular activities, to hold a leadership position in a club or sports team, and to volunteer regularly, and less likely to start using drugs; Whereas mentoring has long been a staple of juvenile justice and violence prevention efforts and can offer comprehensive support to youth at risk for committing violence or victimization, as mentoring can address many risk factors at once; Whereas mentoring relationships for youth facing risk, such as foster youth, can have a positive impact on a wide range of factors, including mental health, educational functioning and attainment, peer relationships, employment, and housing stability; Whereas mentoring programs have been found to have a meaningful positive impact on mental health symptoms across a variety of outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms, interpersonal relationships, and reducing parental stress; Whereas mentoring is an innovative, evidence-based practice and, uniquely, is both a prevention and intervention strategy that can support young people of all demographics and backgrounds in all aspects of their lives; Whereas each of the benefits of mentors described in this preamble serves to link youth to economic and social opportunity while also strengthening communities in the United States; Whereas, despite the benefits of mentoring, 1 out of every 3 young persons is growing up without a mentor, which means a third of the youth of the United States are growing up without someone outside of the home to offer real life guidance and support; and Whereas this mentoring gap That the Senate (1) recognizes January 2024 as National Mentoring Month (2) recognizes the caring adults who serve as staff and volunteers at quality mentoring programs and help the young people of the United States find inner strength and reach their full potential; (3) acknowledges that mentoring is beneficial because it supports educational achievement, engagement, and self-confidence, supports young people in setting career goals and expanding social capital, reduces juvenile delinquency, and strengthens communities; (4) promotes the establishment and expansion of quality mentoring programs across the United States to equip young people with the tools needed to lead healthy and productive lives; and (5) supports initiatives to close the mentoring gap

Summary: This resolution recognizes January 2024 as National Mentoring Month.