Written by Abbie Evans and Adriane Alicea, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership

This August, Congress will recess and Members will return to their home districts for a constituent work period. During this time, they will meet with organizations, visit local community businesses and non-profits and conduct town halls to stay connected with their district. Fortunately, mentoring advocates can use this recess to remind their Members of Congress that mentoring improves outcomes for young people and strengthens communities.

TAKE ACTION NOW AND SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

MENTOR has created a Summer Recess Mentoring Advocacy Toolkit which will provide you with all the resources you need to schedule a meeting with your Member of Congress, invite them to your program or ask a question about mentoring at a town hall. You can pick and choose which actions you’d like to take and what issues you’d like to talk about with your elected officials. Once you’ve taken any of the actions you can fill out our Summer Advocacy Action Form and let us know which actions you completed!

Our legislative priorities this summer include protecting the federal investment in mentoring, youth safety and supporting young people who are chronically absent with mentoring relationships and resources. We hope that you will take any of the actions in our Summer Recess Mentoring Advocacy Toolkit and take a few minutes to send a message to your Member of Congress about these priorities.

This summer recess let’s make sure Congress commits themselves to closing the mentoring gap.