Mass Mentoring hosted colleagues from Mentoring Partnerships around the country at late June's annual States Caucus in Boston. Throughout the Caucus, the attendees participated in sessions on expanding quality mentoring practices nationwide and on a range of issues aimed at closing the mentoring gap in America.
With lead support from Bank of America, the three-day meeting provided a forum for the sharing of best-practices from the field, and highlighted the groundbreaking role MMP has played in establishing quality metrics and training for mentoring programs. There was also serious discussion of embarking upon a collaborative effort to develop a strategic plan for the continued expansion of quality mentoring 
opportunities for youth nationwide.
The event was organized by MMP’s Highland Street Ambassador of Mentoring Allison Smith and featured spirited and educational skill-building workshops and roundtable discussions. At the Opening Leadership Forum, attended by Mentoring Partnerships' executive directors and board chairs, MMP's Board Chair Regina Pisa, from Goodwin Procter, and MMP co-founder and board member Rev. J. Donald Monan shared MMP's recent accomplishments and ideas with forum attendees around approaches to developing a more cohesive network of leaders nationwide to jointly close the mentoring gap.
The workshops focused on topics such as the latest mentoring research presented by Dr. Renée Spencer, Associate Professor at Boston University; the latest in public policy around mentoring; the upcoming 10th anniversary of National Mentoring Month; and a national initiative to ensure quality standards are being met by programs across the country, which is modeled after MMP’s own first-in-the-nation Quality Based Membership.
A celebratory dinner featured remarks from Kristy Teskey, National Foundation Manager and Senior Vice President for the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. Guests also heard from MENTOR's Board Chair Willem Kooyker, and the annual Manza Excellence in Leadership Award was presented to Jean Cohen by MMP President and CEO David Shapiro, last year's winner of the award. Cohen is the longtime Executive Director of the Mentoring Partnerships of New York City and Long Island. The honor recognizes a Mentoring Partnership that demonstrates outstanding leadership and is actively involved with MENTOR to advance the national effort to increase the quality and quantity of mentoring programs and relationships.
"We are very grateful to Mass Mentoring for hosting state Mentoring Partnerships from around the country in the beautiful city of Boston,” said Larry M. Wright, Ph.D, President and CEO of MENTOR. “This States Caucus was particularly memorable because we celebrated 20 years of quality mentoring and we applauded our State Partners as the core building blocks of our national mentoring infrastructure. We saw tremendous communication and collaboration and more efficient use of resources and innovation when we convened last week. This has positively and directly impacted the three million children in the U.S. that we are serving. It is clear that if we continue in this direction together, we will achieve our collective goal of closing the mentoring gap."
