III 109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 357 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 27, 2006 Mr. McCain (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Dole, Mr. Akaka, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Cochran, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Levin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Carper, Mr. Feingold, Ms. Murkowski, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Allen, Mrs. Boxer, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Talent, and Mr. Dodd) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Designating January 2006 as National Mentoring Month.

Whereas youth mentoring is a centuries-old concept, through which an adult provides guidance, support, and encouragement to help a young person become a responsible and productive adult; Whereas mentoring, when done well, helps young people stay in school and improve academically, boosts self-esteem and communication skills, and improves the chances of going on to higher education; Whereas there are thousands of mentoring programs in communities of all sizes across the United States, focused on building strong and effective relationships between caring adults and young people who need positive adult role models; Whereas in spite of the great benefits mentoring provides, the United States has a serious mentoring gap, with more than 15,000,000 young people currently in need of caring adult role models; Whereas the demand for mentoring far exceeds the current capacity of local mentoring programs and the number of adults who currently volunteer as mentors; Whereas recent research conducted as part of the National Conversation on Mentoring—Take II points to the need to generate significantly larger numbers of volunteer mentors as one of the most critical issues facing mentoring; Whereas the designation of January 2006 as National Mentoring Month will focus the Nation’s attention on the essential role mentoring plays in the lives of young people; Whereas the month-long celebration of mentoring will encourage more organizations, including schools, businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith institutions, foundations, and individuals to become engaged in mentoring; and Whereas National Mentoring Month will, most importantly, build awareness of mentoring and recruit more individuals to become mentors, helping close the Nation’s mentoring gap: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1)proclaims the month of January 2006 as the fifth annual National Mentoring Month; (2)recognizes that the President has issued a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States and interested groups to observe the month with appropriate ceremonies and activities that promote awareness of and volunteer involvement with youth mentoring; and (3)recognizes with gratitude the contributions of the millions of caring adults who are already serving as mentors and encourages more adults to volunteer as mentors.