Bringing People Together

Held annually, Youth Mentoring Day is a unique opportunity to convene nearly 350 legislators, youth-serving programs, and young people from across the Commonwealth at the Massachusetts State House to highlight and celebrate the importance of mentoring relationships. Attendees learn how investing in youth can help students succeed in academics and the workplace while strengthening our communities. They also have an opportunity to meet with their state representatives and state senators to advocate for increased funding for mentoring programs across the state, resulting in more mentoring opportunities. Youth Mentoring Day 2024 will be at the State House on March 21, 2024!

Youth Mentoring Day brings together young people, mentoring and youth-serving programs, state legislators and policy makers, and other stakeholders to advocate for increased state investment in mentoring programs across Massachusetts. MMP’s Youth Leadership Council members are essential in planning our successful Youth Mentoring Day, connecting their peers with members of the legislation to support mentoring and youth mental health.

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What to Expect
YMD 2024 Resources
Mentoring Matching Grants Reports

Youth Mentoring Day is organized by mentoring Advocates to help constituents across the Commonwealth understand the importance of expanding Statewide investment in quality, evidence-based youth mentoring. Participants will be able to demonstrate how mentoring has improved countless lives for the better and is an innovative strategy to engage youth that yields positive outcomes in education, mental health, and workforce opportunities, and to demonstrate what it means to mentor with purpose truly.

Initially created in FY99, the Mentor Matching Grant line item is the only state investment solely dedicated to expanding quality mentoring across MA. In FY24 this line item was increased by the Governor and State Legislature to $1,800,000, allowing MMP to support 48 programs with funding, training, and capacity building resources resulting in 4,108 new and existing mentoring matches across the state of MA! This year we are again requesting an investment of $1,800,000 in the mentoring relationships young people need to strive and thrive. This money is awarded in collaboration with DESE through a competitive RFP process and community review administered by the Mass Mentoring Partnership. Funded programs are supported with training and capacity building, based on the latest research and effective practices, and must meet high levels of quality to ensure that outcomes are maximized.

Keynote Speaker Jermaine Myrie CEO, MENTOR National

Jermaine Myrie joined MENTOR in April 2023 as the organization’s CEO.

Jermaine is an innovative and mission-driven leader with 20+ years of leadership experience across the nonprofit, for-profit and education sectors.

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Quality program infrastructure is in place in Massachusetts!

With the Governor’s budget being released, it’s critical that we collectively advocate for continued investment in State dollars with members of the Massachusetts House and Senate to maintain level funding in the FY25 budget for the Mentoring Matching Grants line item (7061-9634). Your advocacy and engagement with your officials can help to maintain funding for youth across the Commonwealth. Please contact your State Officials to request $1,800,000 in funding for the Mentoring Matching Grants Line Item in the FY25 budget!

In FY24, the Mentoring Matching Grants line item (7061-9634) was increased by the Governor and State Legislature to $1,800,000 allowing MMP to support 48 programs with 7,214 youth currently matched across the Commonwealth. But the need continues to grow. We respectfully request that the House and the Senate continue to level fund the line item to $1,800,000 in the FY25 budget!

YMD Advocacy Meeting Tips

MMG FY25 Budget Request

Find your Legislators

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Directions

The Massachusetts State House website has directions to the State House by MBTA, car, and by foot.

You can enter the State House through the General Hooker entrance located on Beacon Street.

Once you arrive at the State House you will make your way to the Great Hall of Flags to check in for the event. After you check in you will then have your program lead/individual registrant connect with Nate Simms adjacent to the check-in location to confirm your legislative visit for the day, which programs if any that will also be attending the visit alongside you, and receive a folder with the materials you’ll leave behind with your elected officials.

Here’s what you can expect for the day.

Registration will begin at 9:30 AM.

Please be sure to give yourself enough time before registration to go through the security check when you come in. Be sure to leave anything that could be considered a weapon at home.

Agenda:

9:30 AM – Registration

10:30 AM – Program begins

11:00 AM – Youth Leadership Council PurposeFULL Mentoring Panel, moderated by YLC members Naomi D’Souza, Chelmsford High School, and Lyla McEntire, Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School. Panelists include YLC members Jorel Chavez-Green, Sharon High School, Condoleezza Dwuye, Taunton High School, and Jasmine Conde, University Park Campus School

11:30 AM – Group Picture/Lunch

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Meetings with Elected Officials*

*We will be scheduling legislative visits after lunch. Please indicate during registration if you would like to visit your legislator as part of Youth Mentoring Day. We will be in touch with the specifics, but visits are dependent on availability and are not guaranteed.

*Please note that the deadline to register with legislative visits scheduled by MMP is March 1st. If you register after March 1st, Mass Mentoring Partnership will not be able to schedule a legislative visit on your behalf. After March 1st, you are still welcome to register to attend the morning program and/or schedule a visit with your representatives yourself!

What else?

Lunch will be provided by Family Affair Catering, and we will have tea and coffee in the morning!

All young people will need to be accompanied by a chaperone. The chaperone will report the number of young people with them in attendance at the registration table. Young people will just need to grab a nametag!

Dress code: Participants should come as they are, and if you have program gear, you are welcome to wear it!