This May, hundreds of thousands of individuals and organizations will call on all Americans to do something positive that will "Change a Lifetime" for a youth in foster care in their own community. As an agency that supports nearly 250 organizations around the state that are changing lives by enabling caring adults to "Pass It On," Mentor Michigan encourages all mentoring programs that serve children and youth in foster care to join in this effort. To help mentoring programs participate, Mentor Michigan has developed a 2011 Foster Care Month Mentoring Program Toolkit, located online at www.mentormichigan.org. The toolkit contains resources on how to raise awareness of the importance of and ongoing need for everyday people to support young people in foster care in reaching their full potential, including ideas for mentoring-related events/activities.

Did you know, in the United States, an estimated 424,000 young people live in foster care (Child Trends, 2009)? Children and youth enter foster care when their own families are in crisis and unable to care for them, or when it is determined that it is not safe for the child to remain at home, because of a risk of maltreatment, including neglect and physical or sexual abuse. Of all the children and youth in out-of-home care because of neglect or abuse, almost 12,700 reside in Michigan (Kids Count, 2009).

By: Jessica Chung, Mentor Michigan AmeriCorps*VISTA

What is H.O.P.E. Mentoring doing for National Foster Care Month?

Our program will work on three projects on May 7, 2011:

1. Thank-you gifts for foster care parents: Mentors and mentees show their appreciation for the foster parents in the community by delivering flowers to their homes. The Midland Gleaners, a retiree group from the community, is helping to put together and deliver the gifts.

2. Professional youth packages: The Midland Gleaners, mentors, and mentees will make "packages" for youth who are aging out of the foster care system that contain helpful tools for their job search: a planner, an USB drive with job-skill tips and templates already uploaded, and a resume portfolio. These will be kept in the local DHS office for dissemination. (Email mentormichigan@michigan.gov for ready-to-upload versions of H.O.P.E.'s job-skill documents.)

3. Community Art Project: Foster care youth, alumni, and others whose lives have been touched by the foster care system will spend a day creating art which explores the culture of foster care by sharing their observations, insights, and lessons on postcards. This postcard project is intended to build community at the same time as it educates foster care professionals, providers, and the general public about the culture of foster care.

Why should other mentoring programs participate in National Foster Care Month?

Our communities are always in desperate need of people willing to open their homes to a foster child, especially homes that are willing to take in a teenager. Events/activities that promote awareness of this need and seek to recruit foster homes and caring adults are vital.

The Mentor Michigan College Coaching Corps is seeking applications from organizations that are interested in hosting an AmeriCorps member during the 2011-2012 Program Year.

Overview of Mentor Michigan College Coaching Corps: Pending funding, 40 full-time AmeriCorps members will be placed within organizations focused on youth mentoring to grow and strengthen mentoring statewide. Through their service, AmeriCorps members will build the capacity of these programs to serve additional youth through mentoring relationships and to provide high-quality support to mentoring matches.

The statewide goals of the MMCCC are to:

1.     To create 2,000 new mentoring relationships

2.     To provide high-quality support to mentoring relationships so that at least 60% are sustained through their target duration

3.     To enhance the benefits of mentoring by infusing age-appropriate resources and activities related to school success and college access

The Request for Proposals and applications materials can be found at: http://bit.ly/MMCCC2011-2012 

Applicants are encouraged to participate in a technical assistance webinars regarding the RFP and application process on either Thursday, May 12^th at 2:00 p.m. (registration here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/625405115) or Thursday, May 26^th at 11 a.m. (registration here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/430273195)

Please contact Ben Gulker, MMCCC Program Director, with any questions.

On Friday, April 8, mentoring organizations from across Michigan were awarded Detroit Pistons mini-grants during an on-court recognition event at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Detroit Pistons and Mentor Michigan awarded 11 mini-grants, valued at $3,388, as part of the first-ever Detroit Pistons Mini-Grants. These mini-grants will allow mentoring organizations to provide educational activities for their mentees focused on the importance of pursuing a college education.

The Detroit Pistons Mini-Grants were made available to Mentor Michigan thanks to funds acquired through ticket sales from the "Mentoring Night at the Palace" Detroit Pistons game on January 22, 2011. The Detroit Pistons donated $5 for every ticket that was sold.

Help them get there!

College positive mentoring encourages and creates a pathway for K-12 youth to consider, plan for, and attend post-secondary institutions. Carefully structured and supported mentoring provides young people with the developmental resources needed for success. Combined with age appropriate, appealing college access activities and consistent encouragement, mentoring relationships help youth succeed both personally and academically, and set them on the pathway for higher education!

Mentor Michigan and Michigan Campus Compact have developed the College Positive Mentoring Toolkit, designed to provide mentors with information, conversation starters, match activity ideas, and ready-to-use activities, to help their mentees take important steps towards higher education.

The complete College Positive Mentoring Toolkit will be available on the Mentor Michigan website later this spring! Visit www.mentormichigan.org for more information.  

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Winning Futures is awarding a total of $5,000 in evidence-based workbooks, handbooks, and training to youth-serving agencies and schools across the United States. The funding to support this program was provided by a private donor.

Winning Futures, a leader in mentoring in Michigan, designed a life skills and goal-setting curriculum and structure with business leaders, educators, parents, and students. Since 1994, their program has been successfully implemented into schools and non-profit agencies throughout the country as a prevention and intervention program through mentoring, workshops, and classroom sessions.

The Winning Futures Workbooks and Training Handbooks empower and prepare youth through:

• Character Value Identification
• Career Exploration and Plans
• Personal Assessments
• Job Readiness Skills
• Academic Goals & Skills Goal Setting

The Road to Success curriculum is for upper elementary and middle school students. The Achieving Success curriculum is for high school students and young adults up to 22 years old. 

Visit www.WinningFuturesBooks.org to download the short application. They are due June 1, 2011, 8:00 p.m. EST.

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May 3, 2011 - Building Partnerships - Schools
Online webinar provided by Mentor Michigan
For more information, or to register, visit https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/464462531.

May 17, 2011 - Match Closure Analysis

Online webinar provided by Mentor Michigan

For more information, or to register, visit

May 19, 2011 - Match Closure Analysis

Online webinar provided by Mentor Michigan

For more information, or to register, visit

June 13, 2011 - Resources for New Mentoring Programs & New Staff

Online webinar provided by Mentor Michigan

For more information, or to register, visit

Funding Opportunities

Check out the latest funding opportunities available to mentoring organizations:

Michigan Community Foundations' Youth Project Grant
This year the Michigan Community Foundations' Youth Project is taking grant review to a new level by allowing conference participants to be a part of the evaluation and distribution of one $5,000 grant. This grant is being offered to nonprofit organizations for projects that service young people within the state of Michigan. The goal of this activity is to educate youth grantmakers about various needs affecting young people throughout the state, expose youth grantmakers to different projects nonprofit organizations are implementing to address those needs, allow conference participants the opportunity to practice evaluating a grant application and distribute funds to support the great work of a nonprofit serving youth in Michigan. Youth Advisory Councils are not eligible to apply for this grant.

In order to successfully facilitate this process, the Michigan Community Foundations need your help in distributing this application to nonprofit organizations that service young people within your communities.  The application is available on the youth grantmakers website at http://www.youthgrantmakers.org/mcfyp/summer-leadership-conferece/2011-youth-grantmakers-summer-leadership-conference. Applications are due Monday, May 16, 2011 and may be submitted via email, fax, mail or online using the following link:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/516184/2011-youth-grantmakers-summer-leadership-conference-grant-application 

The BE BIG Contest is a national campaign that invites applicants to take action and raise awareness for how Clifford's Big Ideas (Share, Play Fair, Have Respect, Work Together, Be Responsible, Be A Good Friend, Help Others, Be Truthful, Be Kind, Believe In Yourself) can make the world a better place. The mission of BE BIG is to recognize and reward others for their BE BIG actions, to catalyze change in local communities and to provide resources for everyone to share BIG Ideas. Clifford welcomes volunteers, schools or community partners to enter for a chance to see their BIG Idea come to life with $75,000 in community grants!

Amount: Up to $25,000

Deadline: June 17, 2011

Contact: http://www.handsonnetwork.org/bebig

OJJDP: Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities Initiative

OJJDP invites community mentoring partnerships or collaboratives that target youth with disability-related challenges that heighten their risk for delinquency to apply. This initiative builds upon the foundation of evidence-based practices for effective mentoring and encourages communities to implement and enhance mentoring programs for youth with disabilities. These mentoring efforts will integrate best practices and proven principles into mentoring service models, including efforts to systematically recruit, train, and support mentors in their efforts to encourage individual youth to maximize personal strengths and to develop compensatory skills in specific areas of disability.

Amount: $300,000 over three years

Deadline: May 18, 2011

Contact: http://www.ojjdp.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2011/MentoringDisabilities.pdf

OJJDP: Mentoring for Child Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation Initiative

This initiative supports efforts of community service organizations to develop or enhance their mentoring capacity, facilitate outreach efforts, and increase the availability of direct services for child victims (younger than age 18) of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) or domestic sex trafficking (DST), including children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. OJJDP expects successful applicants to integrate promising practices and proven principles into mentoring service models; develop strategies to recruit, train, support, and maintain mentors; and provide a comprehensive array of support services to empower girls and boys to move past their experiences with victimization to develop their full potential.

Amount: $500,000

Deadline: June 6, 2011

Contact:

http://www.ojjdp.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2011/MentoringCSEC.pdf

Facebook
To keep up to date with the latest Mentor Michigan and mentoring news, find Mentor Michigan on Facebook. Just visit www.facebook.com/mentormichigan and join other individuals currently following our efforts.

Twitter
For an additional way to stay up to date with the latest Mentor Michigan and mentoring news and information, follow us on Twitter!  Search for @MentorMI and read our messages for the mentoring community.

Michigan National Service Directory 
Michigan's National Service Directory is a new tool designed to assist national service program staff and members to quickly identify the different groups and organizations in their area that have a similar programmatic focus for the purpose of establishing collaborative partnerships.The Directory may also be used to connect interested individuals with respective national service programs in their area and assist programs in member recruitment. Click here to find local AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve, and/or Senior Corps programs.

Service
Being a mentor is one of the most important things you can do for a child. If you're interested in gaining more information on becoming a mentor or looking for a local mentoring program, visit the Mentor Michigan website to utilize the mentoring program directory. Mentoring programs can be located by ZIP code. For more information, click here. 

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