109 SRES 20 IS: Designating January 2005 as U.S. Senate 2005-01-28 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

III 109th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 20 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 28, 2005 Mr. Kennedy (for himself, Mr. McCain, Mr. DeWine, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Levin, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Dayton, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Nelson of Nebraska, Ms. Stabenow, and Mrs. Clinton) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Designating January 2005 as National Mentoring Month.

Whereas mentors serve as role models, advocates, friends, and advisors to youth in need; Whereas mentoring is a proven, effective strategy to enable caring, responsible adults to provide guidance and build confidence, stability, and direction for individual children; Whereas research demonstrates that mentoring has a positive impact on students by increasing attendance at school, improving rates of high-school graduation and college attendance, and reducing involvement with drugs, alcohol, and violent behavior; Whereas over 17,000,000 children in the United States today need or want a mentor, but only 2,000,000 are in mentoring relationships, leaving a mentoring gap of 15,000,000 young people; Whereas the establishment of a National Mentoring Month will emphasize the importance of mentoring and pay tribute to the many Americans already involved in mentoring; Whereas a month-long celebration of mentoring will encourage more organizations, such as schools, businesses, faith communities, and individuals to get involved in mentoring; and Whereas celebrations of mentoring would encourage more individuals to volunteer as mentors and help close the mentoring gap: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1)proclaims the month of January 2005 as National Mentoring Month; (2)recognizes that the President issued a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States and interested groups to observe the month with appropriate ceremonies and activities to promote awareness of mentoring and to encourage many more Americans to participate in mentoring; and (3)recognizes with great appreciation the contributions of millions of caring adults who now serve as mentors and encourages more adults to give of their time and become mentors as an essential part of school reform.