This April, Join Us in Elevating Youth Voices!

Youth are not just our future leaders, but our present day leaders too. As adult collaborators with the youth in our programs, it's our job to elevate their ideas while helping them find the power of their own voices and the platforms they can use to speak their hearts and minds. When we pass the mic—and the power—to young people, the possibilities for what we can achieve together become endless.
In an effort to celebrate Youth Voice Month and honor the experiences of young people, MENTOR Virginia hopes to feature a youth from your program in a social media post this April! Stories can be shared as quotes or in a video format. Use the form below to share a youth story with us! Please submit stories by April 10.
Youth-Led Project to Identify Barriers & Solutions to Mentor Recruitment
Elizabeth Celentano, a senior at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School, is concerned about the number of youth who are waiting to be matched with a mentor. In response, Elizabeth has launched two surveys in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters designed to measure barriers and offer strategies for mentor recruitment efforts. In Elizabeth's own words:

"Through my work with BBBS, I've realized too many kids in Virginia, especially boys of color, are on the waitlist for mentors. I began wondering: What's keeping people from mentoring? How can mentorship organizations better attract mentors? My goal is to use the data from [survey] responses to offer suggestions for how mentorship organizations can improve/restructure volunteer recruitment initiatives to address these barriers."
Check out this video that Elizabeth created to help explain why she launched this research project and how she hopes the survey data will help pinpoint strategies that will lead to more mentoring relationships across Virginia.
Please support Elizabeth's project by taking the relevant survey and passing both surveys along to others in your network! Survey responses will be accepted until April 30.
Formal mentoring is structured, taking place within programs that place parameters around the mentoring relationship.
Informal mentoring can involve parents, teachers, sports coaches—anyone who interacts regularly with young people and helps them feel known, recognized, and supported without a structured program.
Interested in building targeted pipelines to recruit the mentors your program needs the most? Don't forget to register for our upcoming Community Coffee Hour on targeted mentor recruitment strategies, happening on Wednesday, 4/14 from 9 - 10 am! Hear from a recruitment expert and brainstorm ideas with peers for taking your recruitment to the next level.
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