WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2025 National Mentoring Summit convened by MENTOR — the national nonprofit that fuels high-quality relationship-centered practices for young people, uniting, expanding, and strengthening the mentoring movement — welcomed over 1,300 mentoring advocates, youth leaders, mentoring practitioners, government officials and MENTOR Affiliates to the nation’s capital last month.
The Summit, now in its 15th year, had 98 workshops, including five specifically dedicated to young people, through the inaugural Summit Youth Track. 222 presenters led workshops and main stage plenary sessions throughout the Summit. The Summit was highlighted by conversations on ways to engage and grow workplace mentoring, as well as discussions on the importance of mentoring advocacy through a pre-Summit Capitol Hill Day. MENTOR’s latest evidence-based research publication, the fifth edition of Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™ (EEPM), was also uplifted throughout the Summit, held during National Mentoring Month.
The final day of the Summit included a panel of some of MENTOR’s philanthropic partners including Maurice McCaulley, Program Officer of the Gates Foundation, Lauren Sills, Head of Operations for the NBA Foundation and Ed Foster-Simeon, President and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. The panel was moderated by the CEO of MENTOR Jermaine Myrie. The conversation dove into potential funding avenues for nonprofit groups and looked at how sports have elevated mentoring through charitable foundations and athletes.
“Each year it’s important for MENTOR to gather not just as a convener, bringing together diverse thought leadership, but as a national nonprofit organization that helps to provide a platform for the discussion around mentorship to be amplified. One of the core areas of focus this year has been workplace mentoring, that our impact team helps to lead for our corporate partners. Workplace mentoring is a combination of what can happen and what will happen when an organization invests in its best, most valuable resource, its people, providing them upward mobility and support to build a successful pathway for career and personal success,” MENTOR CEO Jermaine Myrie said.
Mainstage plenary sessions also included a conversation led by the Senior Vice President, Workforce Development External Partner Engagement for Bank of America, Abigail Hollingsworth, where she shared the stage in a one-on-one conversation with her mentee, Emani Brooks, a junior at Bowie State University who is an Urban Alliance alumnus.
“We believe that mentoring is the key to a successful workforce. And when we have a successful workforce, it improves individuals' financial lives and ensures a thriving economy. It’s the intersection of purpose and profit,” said Hollingsworth as she introduced the conversation to the crowd of attendees. Since 2012 Bank of America has partnered with MENTOR to advance workplace mentoring initiatives.
“Mentoring not only helps to develop and retain your employees. It also fosters leadership from the mentors. It’s a program that builds bonds and strengthens the professional skills of both parties, further strengthening your workforce and your organization. Mentoring also helps create a world where potential is no longer dictated by circumstance but by opportunity,” added Hollingsworth as she wrapped her main stage session.
MENTOR believes that while potential is equally distributed, opportunity is not. And thus MENTOR plays a critical role as an intermediary helping businesses, nonprofits, private and public entities as well as government officials understand the role a caring adult can play in a young person's life. This is why MENTOR annually convenes the National Mentoring Summit, in the nation’s capital, which welcomes over a thousand attendees each year, putting mentoring volunteers and staff who lead mentoring work daily face-to-face with decision makers and philanthropic investors.
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link.
To learn more about the 2026 National Mentoring Summit and Capitol Hill Day please visit www.mentoring.org.
About MENTOR: MENTOR fuels high-quality relationship-centered practices for young people, uniting, expanding, and strengthening the mentoring movement. 35 years ago, MENTOR was created to expand opportunities for young people by building a youth mentoring field and movement. The result: a more than 10-fold increase in young people in structured mentoring relationships. Today, MENTOR is the primary resource and expert for the youth mentoring field, representing a movement that meets young people everywhere they are – from schools, to workplaces, and beyond. MENTOR operates in collaboration with 24 local Affiliates across the country.
To learn more about MENTOR, visit our website: www.mentoring.org or find us on social media. Follow on X at @mentornational | Facebook: MENTORnational | Instagram: @mentornmp | LinkedIn: MENTOR
Media Contact:
Kelsey Nelson | Director of Communications
(617) 798-4216 | knelson@mentoring.org
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ed4bed29-c9c7-44c5-bed9-62c45792109b
