MMP and mentoring programs have received lots of fantastic media coverage recently! Check out some of our pieces:

This past summer, MMP CEO David Shapiro had the honor of writing an op-ed with Sen. John Kerry.

 

In the piece, published July 12, Shapiro and Sen. Kerry stressed the need for caring mentors for children and support for program infrastructure. Additionally, they announced new legislation sponsored by Sen. Kerry, the Mentoring for All Act, which would grow mentoring programs and partnerships - like MMP - throughout the state and country.

 

They also highlighted the strategies that MMP is employing to address the mentoring gap: promoting leave-time policies where businesses encourage employees to mentor; expanding public and private funding for mentoring programs; conducting high-profile mentor recruitment campaigns and researching the most effective mentoring practices.

 

To read the full editorial, click here.

Months of planning at MMP culminated with the award of an AmeriCorps grant to launch our first team of Ambassadors of Mentoring in October. MMP's corps is one of only two new corps selected in the Commonwealth and 26 selected nationally.

 

The 17 Ambassadors are volunteering a year of service at mentoring programs across the state and MMP, providing capacity-building services designed to strengthen the programs' abilities to fulfill their missions.

 

With MMP's support and guidance, the Ambassadors will help drive human capital to mentoring programs across the state, broadening and deepening our impact -- especially in underserved areas.

 

One of the programs in our network to receive an ambassador, Lowell Association for the Blind, was featured in a recent Lowell Sun article highlighting the importance of its new ambassador.

 

Over the three-year course of the grant, corps members will provide more than 100,000 hours of service to mentoring programs.
 
Read more about the Ambassadors of Mentoring and see a list of participating programs.

On a crisp, sunny, Saturday, Oct. 4th, more than 1,000 cyclists and hundreds of volunteers participated in the Rodman Ride for Kids, a 25-, 50- or 100-mile annual charity bike ride that benefits more than twenty non-profits in Massachusetts.

 

The Ride continues to be MMP's largest annual fundraiser, and this year, we were able to reach our lofty goal of raising $225,000, which will be matched by an additional 15 percent from The Ride.

 

A heartfelt thank-you to our generous sponsors: Bank of America, Ernst & Young, Goodwin Procter, Liberty Mutual, John & Tammy MacWilliams, Nancy Altobello, Savings Bank Life Insurance, and The Schott Family Private Foundation.
 
Read more about this year's Rodman Ride for Kids.

Governor Patrick announced a fiscal plan on Oct. 15 that cuts more than $1 billion from the Commonwealth's budget and eliminates more than 1,000 state jobs.

 

MMP, in partnership with the Mass Service Alliance, worked to bear a burden of the mentoring line item reduction to try to lessen the cuts on grant recipients.

  

We remain committed to maintaining the level of capacity building and training services for grantees. We also understand that many of the programs in our network are affected by other reductions in this plan, and we will continue help them as they face revenue constraints that affect their mentoring efforts.

 

For more on the budget cuts, click here.

Mentee Chucky, age 11, and his mentor Richard meet Bianca Wilfork before a Pats' game at Gillette Stadium. 

 

For the fourth consecutive year, New England's World Champion Nose Tackle Vince Wilfork and WBCN Patriots Rock Radio Network - and for the second year, Safety Insurance - have teamed up with MMP  for "Match of the Game."

 

As a part of this initiative, Vince, his wife Bianca, and WBCN have extended invitations to a mentor and mentee match to attend each home game this season as their special guests.

 

 

The Youth Mentoring Forum with State Street Corporation is Jan. 22, 2009 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Details to be e-mailed soon...

The Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation recently launched its second annual ticket donation program for the 2008-09 season. The Foundation has once again chosen MMP as a community partner for this program and by extension, our network of more than 130 mentoring programs statewide. More than 300 tickets were donated to 31 programs during the 2007-08 season!

A shortage of volunteers means thousands of kids across Massachusetts are currently on waiting lists for mentors. To help bridge the gap, MMP has teamed up with the Boston Red Sox for the third year of the Red Sox Mentoring Challenge. At the helm as honorary chairman is NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell.

 

Learn more about the Red Sox Mentoring Challenge.