[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 751-752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING AND ENCOURAGING MENTORING DURING NATIONAL MENTORING MONTH 
                               OF JANUARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, between 1962 and 1998 I was involved with 
young people as a member of the coaching profession; and during that 
period of time, that 36-year stretch, I saw some alarming trends. The 
out-of-wedlock birth rate went from 5 percent to 33 percent; an 
increase in children living without both biological parents has 
increased to nearly 50 percent; the United States has become the most 
violent Nation for young people in the civilized world; it has the 
highest homicide and the highest suicide rate. Back in 1960, cocaine, 
marijuana, and methamphetamine were practically unheard of and today, 
of course, we have a major epidemic.
  So as far as I am concerned, Mr. Speaker, the greatest threat that we 
have to our Nation is what is happening to our young people.
  I would like to suggest that the best available solution that I have 
been able to observe is mentoring. A mentor is, number one, someone who 
cares. Many children simply have no one in their lives, no adult who 
shows unconditional love and acceptance of them, and a mentor is 
somebody who does that.
  Mentoring also provides affirmation. No one, whether you are 5 years 
old, 10 years old, or 60 years old, can function very well if there is 
not someone who occasionally says, we care about you, we approve of 
what you are doing, way to go. So a mentor is one who provides 
affirmation in a world where many young people get very little of it.
  Then, thirdly, a mentor is one who provides a vision of what is 
possible. So

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many of our young children realize that when they get to be 16, they 
can leave school; and it is assumed that they will do that because they 
have never seen anyone in their family finish high school or go to 
college or contemplate a career. So a mentor provides vision.
  Mentoring works. A mentoring program that I have been involved with 
in my home State of Nebraska has done some follow-up study with the 
Gallup organization. We found that a mentoring program, at least in 
this case, increased attendance by those being mentored by 80 percent, 
reduced disciplinary referrals by 60 percent, and increased academic 
performance by 40 percent. Other studies have shown that a reduction in 
drug and alcohol abuse has been about 50 percent, teenage pregnancy has 
gone down, violent crime has been reduced, graduation rates have been 
improved, peer relationships have been improved, including 
relationships with parents.
  Mentoring is cost-effective. It usually costs about $300 to $500 per 
mentor-mentee match, whereas it costs $30,000 to $40,000 a year to 
incarcerate somebody. A young person on drugs may cost more than 
$30,000 to $40,000 a year.
  The National Mentoring Partnership estimates that roughly 17.5 
million young people badly need a mentor; and yet at the present time, 
we have only about 2.5 million children in mentoring relationships. So 
we have a gap of roughly 15 million young people.
  The Congress and the President have recognized the need by providing 
$50 million for Mentoring For Success grants, and another $50 million 
for mentoring children of prisoners, and this was provided last year. 
However, much more could be done.
  I urge Members of Congress to recognize and encourage mentoring 
during this National Mentoring Month of January. Members of the 
Mentoring Caucus are introducing a resolution honoring mentors. This 
will be done tomorrow, and we hope that we will have a broad base of 
support throughout the Congress.

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