Capitol Hill Day Recap- Building Relationships and Expanding the Mentoring Movement
March 15, 2023
This January, during National Mentoring Month, MENTOR hosted its annual Capitol Hill Day. Over 530 advocates from around the country traveled to Washington, D.C., and held over 268 meetings with their members of Congress—MENTOR’s biggest turnout in the event’s nine-year history. These advocates explained the importance of mentoring and gave real-life stories and examples of how mentoring bills and funding can positively impact the young people and programs that they serve in their communities.
MENTOR’s Government Relations team understands that advocating on the Hill can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking for first-timers. In turn, MENTOR first hosted a virtual Capitol Hill Day training for new and first-time in-person Hill Day participants, where they learned about the legislative branch, how to analyze bills, grassroots advocacy, lobbying, and public awareness/education.
Hill Day advocates then participated in a required in-person training the day before Capitol Hill Day. The training included workshops on message development and legislative asks, a meeting reenactment, time to network and plan with other advocates in their meetings, and inspiring stories from young people.
On Capitol Hill Day, advocates attended the kick-off event and heard remarks from the Chair of the Congressional Youth Mentoring Caucus, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. Additionally, MENTOR awarded Massachusetts State Rep. Chynah Tyler and U.S. Rep. Don Bacon Excellence in Mentoring Awards. Advocates then got to ask any lingering questions to a panel of congressional staffers, who gave insight on best practices for effective meetings with Congressional aides and members of Congress.
Once the kick-off event came to a close, advocates traveled to the Hill. While some were advocating in person, others sent messages to their elected representatives from home using MENTOR’s Action Center. The Action Center gives advocates the opportunity to use their voices to support the mentoring movement year-round, even if they can’t attend Capitol Hill Day.
Capitol Hill Day achieved many successes, including the bicameral reintroduction of the Transition-to-Success Mentoring Act, Mentoring to Succeed Act, Students Helping Young Students Act, and National Mentoring Month resolutions in Congress! This would have not happened without youth mentoring advocates, who used their skills and deep knowledge of the mentoring movement in their local communities to help influence positive change for the mentoring movement.
Looking for ways to become an advocate for mentoring?
Take two minutes to write to and tweet at your Members of Congress to urge them to increase funding for the Youth Mentoring Grant, the only mentoring-specific line item in the federal budget. Let your Member of Congress know that this program is critical and needs an increased investment this year!