[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2248]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          RECOGNIZING THE 13TH ANNUAL NATIONAL MENTORING MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 29, 2014

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the importance of 
recognizing January as National Mentoring Month. Since 2002, National 
Mentoring Month has served as an opportunity for our country to reflect 
on the benefits of youth mentoring and to highlight the positive impact 
it has on the development of our youth.
  The theme of this year's mentoring month is ``Mentoring Works''! It 
allows us to proudly and openly discuss mentoring as a vital academic 
and social development strategy for our youth.
  The fact is that in many regions mentoring helps young people achieve 
academic success; it also serves to help young people make responsible 
decisions for their futures.
  According to a recent report released by MENTOR: the National 
Mentoring Partnership, some of the benefits of mentoring include:
  The creation of higher educational goals. It is more likely for a 
youth with a mentor to attend college than for a youth without a 
mentor.
  Participation in productive and beneficial activities. It is more 
likely for youth with mentors to engage in leadership positions, 
extracurricular activities and sports, and community service than youth 
without mentors.
  Another added benefit of mentoring is Upward Mobility. Integrated 
with other national initiatives, mentoring has the capacity to reduce 
poverty and increase the economic mobility of young people.


                                NATIONAL

  Youth report that formal mentoring programs provide a variety of 
benefits, and most commonly offer that they receive advice about 
school, get help with school issues and/or schoolwork. They also make 
reference to receiving help to address life problems, assistance in 
getting a job, choosing a career and getting into college.
  Youth in informal mentoring relationships commonly offer that their 
mentors provided developmental, more than academic, support.
  Mentoring does not only provide immediate positive effects for young 
people in our community, but it also fosters growth and a continuation 
of this type of leadership.
  Nearly nine in ten respondents who were mentored report they are 
interested in becoming mentors. In addition to confirming the value of 
mentoring, this desire to become a mentor also strengthens the earlier 
finding that mentoring is linked with higher rates of leadership and 
volunteering and offers a pool of future mentors to be activated.


                                HOUSTON

  In Houston, the Boys and Girls Club is a wonderful medium for 
mentoring.
  The club works on supporting youth to become life-long learners by 
emphasizing academic success and setting goals of higher education. By 
providing access to tools and technology, this organization also 
prepares our youth for the 21st century.
  Career development through literacy and tutoring is stressed as well 
as cultural awareness, creativity, the arts, and photography to ensure 
well-rounded knowledge.
  This broad reaching mentoring program has yielded incredible 
measurable results:
  Club members graduate from high school at a rate of 87 percent 
compared to the national average of 66 percent.
  They finish college at a rate of 25 percent, exceeding the national 
average of 16 percent.
  And they show an overall improvement of 12 percent in their grades at 
school.
  Although we know that mentoring provides all these great benefits, 1 
in 3 young people in the United States are still without a mentor. 
Therefore, in acknowledgement of these benefits, and in an effort to 
raise awareness and participation, I would like to commend all of the 
mentoring organizations that exist nationwide and especially those 
within the 18th district of Texas.
  Therefore, I join the National Mentoring Month initiative to 
encourage local mentoring programs and organizations to plan activities 
in our communities that increase mentoring efforts.

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