Together, We Recover: Mentoring Month Shines Light on Service Opportunities Amid the Pandemic
By Michael Lynch, Josh Fryday
With a new year comes the influx of New Year’s resolutions. Narratives around New Year’s resolutions are often framed as decisions made individually, but what if some of the most impactful choices we could make for ourselves are to help others reach their goals and dreams?
Every January, communities across the country come together to celebrate Mentorship Month, a campaign to highlight the impact mentors have on young people. While the role of mentors varies largely for youth, especially young men of color, mentors are lifelines for the academic advising, emotional support, and strength building needed to navigate the complex challenges young people face and strive for goals otherwise unseen.
For Andy Garcia, growing up as a young man of color in the foster care system in South Central LA afforded him few connections to the support he needed to cope with and navigate an environment burdened by trauma and violence. “Being from the hood and growing up in foster care, I felt like I never had a voice”, Garcia stated.
When Garcia entered high school, he joined a mentorship program called Upward Bound. Having a mentor helped Garcia see the intelligence, compassion, and determination he already possessed, empowering him to envision opportunities he never once considered. “It changed my life around and helped me think about college, something I never thought about before.” Having access to a dedicated mentor gave Garcia the confidence and academic advising he needed to get him to Sacramento State, where he thrived, receiving both a bachelor's in social work and a master's in education.
Today, Garcia is returning the favor by serving as a Lead Mentor for the non-profit, Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT), where he provides dedicated mentorship and emotional support to young men of color at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento.
Garcia’s story of benefiting from mentorship, then turning around to help other young people underscores the positive feedback loop that occurs when we show up for each other as mentors. Mentors and support for mentorship programs like IYT’s are needed now more than ever as the pandemic continues to put pressure on our education systems and impact the mental health of students.
Bina Lefkovitz, a longtime advocate of mental health and wellness, as well as a trustee for the Sacramento County Board of Education, champions mentorship programs because of their focus on creating more caring relationships in the lives of youth. “Because the mentor-mentee relationship is one focused on care, it can be a great way to help youth heal from trauma, connect to their schools and communities, and become more resilient,” Lefkovitz stated.
Mentorship programs deployed by nonprofits, like Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT), showcase that caring relationships can produce transformational outcomes such as higher rates of graduation, college readiness, and college attainment as compared to the state’s averages.
Mentorship also creates career opportunities and increases the diversity of staff and educators at schools. In the case of IYT, a hundred and sixty-seven mentors are being recruited to serve 3,000 boys and young men of color across five counties. A majority of these mentors are people of color who are in college or are early-career professionals who navigated many of the same challenges their mentees face.
A decade ago, the federal government pulled support for comprehensive mentorship programs. Since then, mentorship programs are mostly funded through partnerships between nonprofit organizations, state and local government, and private philanthropy.
Seeing the success of mentorship programs as a means of service, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently invested over $1 million in state funds to support the work of IYT. Newsom stated, “We are continuing to build equity and opportunity for California’s young men of color by bringing people together through service.”
As we strive to build a better future in the face of so many global challenges, a powerful albeit simple, recovery strategy is investing in the futures of our youth. While the state continues to build on its commitment to making mentorship accessible to all students, individuals can bridge the opportunity gap by signing up for and supporting mentorship programs in their communities.
For volunteer opportunities, visit CaliforniansForAll.ca.gov.
