Advocacy After August
August 26, 2025
Thank you for taking part in MENTOR’s annual Advocacy August campaign! During this month, we have highlighted the importance of engaging with public officials at the local, state, and national levels. Advocacy is something any of us can do, and effective advocacy has a simple formula: educate and build relationships with public officials and their staff.
If you took the opportunity to be an advocate for youth mentoring this month, thank you! We encourage you to continue building on the advocacy efforts that you have already started. If you haven’t had the chance to be an advocate this month, it’s not too late!
Expanding access to quality youth mentoring programs requires ongoing advocacy efforts. As part of the mentoring movement, we encourage you to reach out to a public official at all levels of government. Contact them to share your opinion on a specific issue, request a meeting, or invite them to visit your community to see mentoring at work.
As you continue your advocacy efforts, remember to utilize MENTOR’s resources to support your work. MENTOR’s Grassroots Advocacy Resources offer information about important legislation and guides on how to contact public officials. After you engage with a public official, use the “Logging Engagements with Elected Officials” form in the MENTOR Action Center to help us track our collective advocacy efforts across the country.
You can also continue your advocacy work by joining us in Washington, DC, for Capitol Hill Day, part of the National Mentoring Summit in February. Each year, MENTOR convenes advocates from across the country to meet with members of Congress and their staff to share the impact of mentoring and to advocate for policies that expand opportunities for young people. An interest form for those wishing to participate in Capitol Hill Day this year will be launched on September 9, along with early bird registration for the Summit.
Thank you for the advocacy work that you have done, and the continued work we will do together in the future. Advocacy can be a long journey, but making a difference can be as easy as picking up the phone and sharing the impact that mentoring has had in your life or in your community.