In a celebration hosted by the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership announced the launch of a new initiative in Milwaukee designed to expand mentoring and support young people. MENTOR Greater Milwaukee will be a partnership among Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the City of Milwaukee. This partnership is the first of its kind to include an NBA team, its host city, and the largest school district in the state.
MENTOR Greater Milwaukee will provide the necessary infrastructure to improve mentoring program quality, recruit and support more mentors, scale effective programs and innovations, foster collaborations to transform systems, collect data to describe the impact of mentoring in the broader community, identify gaps in the range of services needed, influence public policy, and increase philanthropic support for the field.
“Mentors not only serve as role models, but they help students feel valued and empowered,” said MPS Superintendent Dr. Keith P. Posley. “We look forward to engaging with mentors across the city who will support our students now and look to them as leaders in the decades to come.”
Milwaukee was selected to become the 25th MENTOR affiliate in part because the city shows a substantial gap between the number of young people seeking mentors and the number of quality mentors available to serve them. One of the initial goals of the program is to launch a 1,000 Mentors for Youth Challenge to be completed by 2021.
Milwaukee Public Schools looks forward to the many supports our students will receive through this partnership with the Milwaukee Bucks and the City of Milwaukee. A special thank you to our strategic partners, the Al Hurvis/ADAMM Education Foundation and the Milwaukee County Office of African American Affairs.
To become a mentor, contact MENTOR Greater Milwaukee at milwaukeementor.com.