Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series

Advocate and Raise Our Collective Voices in Support of Mentoring

February 21, 2013

2013 Collaborative Mentoring Webinar SeriesPlanning Team

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Sarah Kremer, Friends for Youth

Michael Garringer, Education Northwest

Meghan Ferns, Oregon Mentors

Dana Gold, MP of SWPA

Polly Roach, MP of Minnesota

Tammy Tai,MENTOR

Molly Brenner,MENTOR

Good to Know…

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After the webinar, all attendees receive:

Instructions for how to access PDF of presentation slides and webinar recording

Link to the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring where we: • Post resources• Keep the conversation going

Please help us out by

answering survey

questions at the end of the webinar.

Participate in Today’s Webinar

• All attendees muted for best sound

• Type questions and comments in the question box

• Respond to polls• Who is with us today?

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Today’s Webinar

• Janet Forbush– Importance of advocacy in youth mentoring field– Strategies for all programs, regardless of resources

• Elena Sokolow-Kaufman– Example of one Mentoring Partnership’s successful advocacy

efforts– What’s worked and hasn’t worked

Q & A throughout the presentation (use the Q & A panel)

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Janet ForbushJanet Forbush is an independent consultant specializing in program development and evaluation of human services programs, focusing on high-need youth populations. Currently, she serves as a member of the Senior Design Team on the American Institutes for Research (AIR) evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Strategic Enhancement to Mentoring Demonstration project. Ms. Forbush consults with a variety of national, state, and local government and non-profit agencies supporting youth development and mentoring initiatives.

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ad-vo-cate / ad-vo-ca-cy• One that pleads the cause of another (n)• One that defends or maintains a cause or

proposal• The act or process of advocating• Advocate – work together to inform,

influence and inspire policymakers to take notice of the importance and need for mentoring

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Background• Connections between mentoring

practitioners and researchers have recently been strengthened

• Far fewer efforts have engaged policymakers

• Urgent need to expand and enrich this dialogue – local, state, national levels

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Your Voices Are Needed• Difficulty is not the process but just getting started• Start locally…work collaboratively with city and

community leaders, other youth advocates, e.g., Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership in New York City, Mayor Coleman in St. Paul

• Your Congressional representatives and U.S. Senators are in recess this week…reach out to them and their staff

• Work through state partnerships as well as ‘niche’ groups, e.g., state juvenile justice boards, Out-of-School-Time networks, National League of Cities

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Our Premise• Is there an ‘Opportunity Youth Cliff’? • Work of the White House Council on Community

Solutions supports this premise• Levin, et. al. – ‘The Economic Value of

Opportunity Youth’ – 6.7 million youth between 16-24 neither enrolled in school nor in labor market

• Advocates can use recent data to support argument for more dollars – investing in youth programs is cost-effective

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Making the Case• State of the Union address• Horizon: sequestration (3/1); continuing

resolution (3/27); and, 2014 budget (4/14)• Key Senate and House hearings/testimony• Connections with non-governmental

organizations: e.g., America’s Promise Alliance, National League of Cities, Opportunity Nation, and United Way Worldwide

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Advocacy Framework – Stanford Social Innovation Review (Spring 2013)

• Functioning legislative venue(s)• Policy window – needs of youth• Feasible solution• Our master plan• Strong campaign leader(s)• Collaborative coalition• Mobilized public• Inside champions in legislatures• Implementation path

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Elena Sokolow-KaufmanElena Sokolow-Kaufman is the Manager of Government Relations and Field Resources for Mass Mentoring Partnership. She joined MMP in 2009, and has led the organization’s state level advocacy work, educating elected and administration officials on the value of mentoring, providing training and technical assistance to youth mentoring programs in budget advocacy and building alliances with other networks focused on improving the lives of youth in Massachusetts. Prior to her work at Mass Mentoring, Elena was a Director of Community Impact at United Way of Massachusetts Bay where she managed a portfolio of youth serving grantees.

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History and Vision

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• Rationale for engaging in advocacy– Results of strategic planning process– Economic downturn

• Vision– Short term, maintain and/or increase resources– Long term, create and implement a shared

policy agenda

Mentor Matching Grants

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• Competitive grant program• Included in FY99 budget at $1,000,000 • Created and supported over 10,000 mentoring

matches• Required a dollar-for-dollar match for grantees• Required financial and programmatic reporting

to show impact• Significant return on investment

Funding History

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FY 0

0

FY 0

1

FY 0

2

FY 0

3

FY 0

4

FY 0

5

FY 0

6

FY 0

7

FY 0

8

FY 0

9

FY 1

0 ...

FY 1

0 F

...

FY 1

1

FY12

FY13

1,000,000 1,000,000

931,000

500,000

287,000 287,000287,000

712,000 712,000

517,000*

0

100,000** 100,000

350,000

Mentoring Matching Grants Line Item(7061-9634)Funding Level FY00-FY13

250,000

Strategies and Tactics

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• Building relationships with Legislators and Administration Officials

• Building capacity of MMP staff and board• Building alliances with other organizations• Building capacity of the youth mentoring

field– Training and Technical Assistance– Action alerts and materials

Building Relationships with Public Officials

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• Government as funder, official as program officer– Year round communication– Research interests– Site visits/ opportunities to meet matches– Invite to events and give them a role– Public awareness opportunities– Be a resource

What We Have Learned

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• Relationships are critical• Youth mentoring programs must be at the

center• Be able to adapt approach to changing

environment/players• Build off what works, learn from tactics

that are less successful

Resources

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• Alliance for Excellent Education (http://www.all4ed.org)• Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)/We Dream a World: The

2025 Vision for Black Men and Boys (http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/documents/files/2025BMBfulldoc.pdf)

• National League of Cities – Institute for Youth, Education and Families (www.nlc.org)

• Opportunity Nation (www.opportunitynation.org)• Continuing resolution updates:

http://www.governing.com/news/state/gov-continuing-resolution-deadline-raises-concerns-capitol-hill.html

• Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance: Poverty, Literacy, and the Development of Information Capital, Neuman, S. & Celano, Donna, Teachers College Press (2012)

• How Children Succeed, Tough, P., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012)

Friends for Youth’s Annual Conference

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14th Mentoring Conference

April 18 – 19, 2013Oracle Conference Center

Santa Clara, CA

http://www.friendsforyouth.org/MI-Conference.html

Remember…

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After the webinar:

Everyone will get an email with information on how to download the slides/recording

Continue the conversation at the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring: http://chronicle.umbmentoring.org/

Please help us out by

answering survey

questions at the end of the webinar.

2013 Collaborative Mentoring Webinar SeriesThank you for participating today!

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Next Webinar is March 21, 2013Topic: “Youth Mentoring in Contemporary Perspective” with Michael Karcher and David DuBois, authors

of the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Youth Mentoring

Sarah Kremer, Friends for Youth

Michael Garringer, Education Northwest

Meghan Ferns, Oregon Mentors

Dana Gold, MP of SWPA

Polly Roach, MP of Minnesota

Tammy Tai,MENTOR

Molly Brenner,MENTOR