MENTOR Continues Racial Justice Capacity Building Grants Program Through NFL-Funded Support
December 13, 2022
MENTOR is thrilled to announce that the National Football League (NFL) has continued to provide generous funding for our Racial Justice Capacity Building Grants Program. During this latest round of grants, MENTOR provided a total of $175,000 in grants to 10 MENTOR Affiliates. These funds will help the Affiliates develop and/or refine regional racial equity action plans, increase local education and awareness, and transform systems of structural racial inequity facing young people.
Across the country, MENTOR Affiliates will be able to advance racial equity work in their local mentoring communities. Virginia Patterson, executive director of MENTOR Virginia, comments on the impact this grant will have: “MENTOR Virginia is beyond grateful for the funding support that will allow BIPOC and LGBTQ communities to process and reflect on the problems and policies that impact their lived experiences. The training made possible by these grants will expand our thinking, and we are so excited about how this will enrich our racial equity journey.”
Recipients of the 2022-2023 Racial Equity Capacity-Building Grantees
GREATER MILWAUKEE – Black and Latino Male Youth Ambassador and Mentoring Program
MENTOR Greater Milwaukee will be partnering with the Milwaukee Public Schools, Department of Black and Latino Male Achievement (BLMA) First Thursday Mentoring Program to continue its work around Social Justice Mentor Ambassadors. They will be working alongside BLMA and Equitable Consultants to train BLMA Ambassadors in leadership and social justice to allow youth voice to be uplifted in the mentoring space. The program will also be used to expand the reach of BLMA’s 12 Guiding Principles work. The Ambassadors will lead work on the creation of peer mentoring programs within the partnering schools. The Ambassadors will not only uplift the 12 Guiding Principles, but they will also expand youth voice around topics such as socio-political awareness, community, and leadership.
IOWA – Advancing Social Justice and Youth Centrism
Iowa MENTOR seeks to continue expanding its partnerships with BIPOC-led youth organizations in the state’s larger population centers, building on the work done in Des Moines with the prior racial justice grant. They will host community conversations focused on advancing social justice and youth centrism and analyze programming strengths and gaps of youth programming with an equity lens. DEI resources will be shared and implemented with programs, including the previously developed critical questions and DEI program framework. Youth input will be sought with youth conversations, implementing a youth advisory group, and consulting with community partners to increase youth voice. They will also move to the next phase of work with Des Moines area programs to address gaps identified in their initial outreach — including training, collaborative recruitment planning, and development of plans with a DEI focus in youth engagement, parent engagement, mentor engagement, and community engagement.
PHILADELPHIA / INDEPENDENCE REGION – State of Relationships According to Young People
MENTOR Independence Region will transform structures of inequity that affect Greater Philadelphia’s youth by strengthening mentoring and informing stakeholders across sectors what young people have, want, and need from mentoring relationships in order to thrive on the path to adulthood. They will transform the mentoring movement by learning directly from youth about how to advance mentoring by researching young people’s perceptions of mentoring that happens both in programmatic contexts and mentoring that occurs naturally. Additionally, they will assess the availability of caring and supportive relationships, the quality of those relationships according to youth, and the ways that mentoring needs to improve to better serve them. There will be a specific focus on the constructs of Youth Centrism and Racial Equity, with research that will result in a document tentatively titled The State of Relationships According to Young People. The document will serve as a launchpad to advance the conversation within the mentoring field to become more equitable and youth-centric though digital communications, convenings with partners and stakeholders, conference submissions, and other thought leadership opportunities. Specifically, this funding will support the research and writing of this document.
CONNECTICUT – Governor’s Prevention Partnership (GPP)
Increasing Diversity in Board, Fundraising, and Communications
Through this grant, GPP will focus on advancing key objectives within their strategic plan goals of building awareness and building organizational strength and sustainability. Project activities include increasing the diversity of the board of directors and developing board capacity to implement effective diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and practices; diversifying revenue sources and increasing board engagement in fundraising; and creating strategic multi-platform communications tailored to reach specific stakeholders such as corporations, mentors/prospective mentors, youth and families, and community-based programs.
COLORADO – Anti-Oppression and DEI Assessment, Training, and Recommendations for Consultants
While MENTOR Colorado has been doing internal equity work with its staff, the focus is now working to ensure every layer of the organization is aligned in working towards this goal. With a consultant roster providing a large amount of technical assistance and trainings to mentoring programs across the state, MENTOR Colorado’s goal is to ensure every person associated with the organization is approaching projects with an equity lens and incorporating anti-oppression practices into their work. MENTOR Colorado will work with consultant Regan Byrd on an organizational assessment, skills development and training, and creation of a plan to improve DEI and anti-oppression work. Additionally, MENTOR Colorado will begin implementation of this plan, weaving equity and anti-oppression practices into the foundation of the organization so that it is integrated in everything they do.
SOUTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA – DEI/Racial Justice Staff/Board Training and Program Outreach
For two years, The Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania has undertaken efforts to center diversity, equity, and inclusion even more intentionally through the lenses of staff training, board engagement/input, and program development. They have assembled and activated a board-led DEI task force that is focused on defining what DEI means for them, both organizationally and personally. With this project, they plan to build on that progress, emphasizing staff/board training and surveying/outreach to their program network to better understand their thoughts on DEI, where they are now, where they want to be, and the resources they can provide to help them get there.
VERMONT – Board and Mentor Recruitment Equity and Youth Voice
MENTOR Vermont will invest in continued collaboration with the organization’s new DEI consultant to help propel the organization forward following the foundation laid by the former consultant. As MENTOR Vermont enters its next phase of work with the new DEI consultant, the organization will focus on equitable board and mentor recruitment, the documentation of MENTOR Vermont’s DEI journey as a modeled resource to the Vermont mentoring field, and the incorporation of youth voice into the organization’s work.
VIRGINIA – Youth Advisory Council
MENTOR Virginia has formed a youth advisory council to engage in advocacy and social justice activities. With a vison for expansion, MENTOR Virginia will refine quality training for mentors and provide safe spaces for BIPOC and LBTGQ communities to process and reflect on the problems and policies that impact them. Incorporating their DEI plan will be a guidepost for learning, creating, and aligning policies, practices, and programs to their mission. They will complete reading the Critical Mentoring Supplement to the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™ and look forward to trainers and consultants applying these practices. Staff will begin reading The Four Pivots- Reimagining Justice, Reimaging Ourselves by Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D. This reading will provide transformative shifts to their thinking and approach to social justice, and this professional development will support a culture of self-discovery and deeper learning.
RHODE ISLAND – Diversity, Equity, and Belonging Committee and Racial Equity Conversations
MENTOR Rhode Island will take a three-pronged approach to transform systems of structural racial inequity facing young people in local communities. First, they will partner with Newport Partnership for Families to continue the work recently started to increase the number of BIPOC teachers and staff in the Newport Public School System and create a consistent presence of BIPOC parents and mentors. Second, they will partner with our “Relationships at the Center” sub-grantees across the city of Providence to convene a cross-section of non-profit staff, community members, government officials, school staff, and youth to identify barriers to access the services needed for student success, particularly in middle and high school. And, lastly, through their statewide “Rhode to Success: The Power of Mentoring” sub-grantees, they will create a statewide Youth Empowerment Council to develop a youth-led agenda identifying the issues and problems they wish to focus on.
GEORGIA – Professional Development Coaching Program for BIPOC-led and BIPOC-Serving Organizations
MENTOR Georgia will create a six-month coaching program for youth mentoring organizations specifically targeting founders, executive directors, and/or lead staff of these mentoring organizations. This proposal would establish an initial cohort of up to 10 individuals, with a preference for organizations with fewer than 2.5 staff, serving youth clients who primarily identify as minorities, and led by professionals who identify as minorities. By investing in their competency as leaders, creating a community of shared learning, and coaching them through the individual needs of their organizations, this program aims to assist these professionals in building strong foundations beneath their organizations while growing their professional networks.