Please use the form on the next page to sign on to the FY25 Youth Mentoring Grant Coalition Letter to the U.S. Congress (copied below). If you have any questions about this letter, please contact Caden at cfabbi@mentoring.org. This form will close on March 29th, 2024.

Letter Text

Dear Chairs Rogers and Shaheen and Ranking Members Cartwright and Moran:

Thank you for your long support of the Part G Youth Mentoring Program. This important competitive grant, managed at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the Department of Justice, supports youth-serving organizations throughout the country as they provide evidence-based mentoring services and caring relationships for young people experiencing some of the most challenging obstacles of their lives. As you develop the Fiscal Year 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, the XXX youth-serving organizations who have signed this letter respectfully call for an investment of at least $130 million in funding for this critical program: the only mentoring-specific line item in the federal budget.

Young people need relational supports more than ever; yet, unfortunately, many still don’t have access. Recent research has confirmed the longstanding “mentoring gap”: one in three young people will grow up without ever having a mentor during their childhood. In fact, this gap has grown in recent years; 40% of today’s young people say they never had a mentor and almost 70% say there were times growing up where they wanted a mentor, but could not find one. At the same time, there is strong public support for government investment in youth mentoring: a public survey in 2019 found that 83% of Americans express some agreement that government funds should be used for youth mentoring. Congress can support efforts to shrink the mentoring gap by increasing funding for this grant program.

Mentoring organizations need the Youth Mentoring Grant to support their operations and fill in funding gaps due to rising costs because of inflation, workforce shortages, and reduced charitable giving. Investment in this program will help more grantees offer competitive positions that appeal to high-quality practitioners in order to support thousands more young people. Further, these obstacles prevent programs from meeting the need for mentors in their communities; the average mentoring program has 63 young people on their waitlist. Funds may also help programs to recruit, train, screen, and support effective volunteer mentors in programs across the country.

The ability of quality mentoring programs to intersect with any number of issues and support the delivery of specific desired outcomes makes it uniquely valuable for increased public investment:

Mentoring to Address Loneliness and Isolation. There may be no more direct way to help reduce isolation and loneliness for a young person than providing them with a relationship that is tailored to their needs and circumstances. Mentoring programs, by definition, are focused on connecting youth to not only individual relationships, but deep engagement with program staff and other participants. Relationships with supportive adults are considered a key developmental asset; trusting relationships create a nourishing environment for adolescents to explore the world around them and engage in healthy risk-taking.

Mentoring and youth violence prevention and intervention. Mentoring serves as one of the few prevention and intervention strategies that can effectively address multiple risk and protective factors simultaneously. Mentoring has also been found to reduce aggressive behaviors such as fighting, bullying, and delinquency. Effective services can help young people heal, and can assist youth who have engaged or are at risk of being offenders of violence by providing them with role models who support positive, prosocial behavior. Mentoring programs have successfully partnered with agencies, community-based organizations, and private sector entities to implement whole community approaches designed to address violence.

Mentoring and mental health. Mentors have always been assets to young people when they are experiencing mental health challenges. Youth mentoring programs of all types have the ability to prevent and help youth cope with depressive symptoms. Strong mentoring services can help address the trauma that youth have faced, including those who lost a caregiver, and help reduce stigma and increase treatment entry and adherence. Having a mentor has also been found to be associated with life satisfaction and positive well-being in adulthood.

Mentoring and education. Young people facing risk of not completing high school but who had a mentor are more likely to enroll in college, participate in extracurricular activities, hold a leadership position, and volunteer. School-based mentoring programs also have a positive impact on a variety of outcomes, including reducing truancy and absenteeism rates and school-related misconduct and increasing scholastic efficacy and peer support.

Mentoring and opioid and other substance use. Access to caring adult mentors is a protective factor for young people, lowering the likely incidents of drug use and other harmful behaviors. This is especially true in youth who have a parent, caregiver, or other loved one struggling with or dying as a result of drug misuse. Further, because mentoring programs can offer support at all three prevention levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary), practitioners are important resources in combating the opioid crisis. While the primary prevention work is the most critical from a public health perspective, research demonstrates that caring relationships can bolster treatment and recovery.

Mentoring and career exploration/workforce development. Mentors support youth in career exploration and early employment experiences by providing social-emotional support and hands-on skill development. Building intentional mentoring relationships with young employees has led to higher retention rates, direction in building a career or educational journey, wage increases, and employee satisfaction. It can also help offset feelings of exclusion that prevent marginalized youth from considering certain career paths.

Mentoring and identity development. Research has found that fostering a sense of belonging and forging a sense of personal identity were among the most meaningful forms of support offered by mentors. Too many American youth are growing up without these core aspects of human development, and in their isolation can drift into antisocial or even violent behaviors. Mentoring relationships are a cornerstone of a healthy society that allows all parties to contribute and find their positive path.

Mentoring for Youth in Rural Communities. Low-income rural youth report some of the lowest rates of mentoring of any demographic group in the country. This presents an important directive for expansion, as studies show many acute benefits to young people in rural communities, such as health improvements, mental health gains, academic achievement, externalizing negative behaviors.

Mentoring for Military-Connected Youth. Mentoring offers a practical approach to supporting military youth and their families, and has been shown to improve academic performance and decrease symptoms of depression, while improving social support and parental ratings of stress in the home.

As youth-serving organizations committed to ensuring young people are loved, supported, and set up for success in life, we recognize the unique capabilities of the Youth Mentoring Program grant to improve outcomes for young people facing risk, and its capacity to scale effective evidence-based practices and support. We urge you to support these efforts by approving an increased appropriation of $130 million for the program in the FY25 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

We appreciate your time and attention to this important issue. Please contact us should you require additional information.

Sincerely,