I serve on the board of Virginia Mentoring Partnership (VMP) because mentoring matters.  VMP is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1993 that provides training and support to mentors and mentoring programs across Virginia.  Our vision is that every child who needs a mentor has a mentor. VMP leads the mentoring movement in Virginia to address this “mentoring gap” by supporting strong programs and raising collective awareness about the impact of mentoring with community stakeholders, public officials, and potential volunteers.

Volunteer mentors and mentoring programs rely on VMP to help them provide high-quality mentoring to youth, reaching an estimated 40,000 youth across Virginia. However, research from the National Mentoring Partnership indicates that 1 in 3 young people cannot identify an adult role model in their lives; In Virginia, this equates to 622,000 children lacking this critical guidance and support.

Please help me reach my goal of raising money by December 31st to MOVE MENTORING FORWARD!

• Move kids off of waiting lists in our partner programs by inspiring volunteers to get involved as mentors.
• Move youth mentoring to be a top priority for community leaders and to recognize quality mentoring as an important intervention for kids that help them to succeed in school, meet their goals, and prepare for college and the workforce.
• Move VMP into the spotlight and prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2018, and honor the work of our mentors and program partners!

Please consider making your year-end, tax deductible contribution as part of our “Moving Mentoring Forward” campaign. As you may know, VMP is a small nonprofit with a large reach, and we rely on grants from corporations and foundations, and gifts from donors and supporters to provide our services.

You can read more about VMP here (www.vamentoring.org).  Please let me know if you have any questions about VMP or how you can get involved with mentoring in Virginia.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!