We believe every child is one caring adult relationship away from being a success story. Research tells us that one in three young people do not have access to a mentor at all in their lives. Mentoring is a social justice issue. Children from underprivileged backgrounds do not have the same access to positive adult relationships as their more affluent peers. And we all know that the quality of our relationships directly impacts the quality of our lives. With RI ranking last of the New England states on the quality of our education system, odds are stacked against our kids. Poor kids, through no fault of their own, often get stuck in the inter-generational cycle of poverty.
A child cannot be what they cannot see. That’s why, in inner city schools, students often say they want to be teachers or sometimes, if they have access to healthcare, pediatricians. Often the only college graduates they know. Join the Mentoring movement. It is because of you and people like you, we can dream about building a stronger community, centered on positive relationships for kids. MENTOR Rhode Island works collaboratively with schools and youth development organizations to expand relationship-centric supports for young people to address inequity in education. Your investment is a critical part of the mentoring movement’s mission: our work to ensure that no young person in RI grows up without a network of caring adults in their lives.