January Is National Mentoring Month
We all need a little help now and then, right? I know I wouldn’t have been able to make SEO James into a successful Florida SEO company without the help and guidance of some very special people. And I know I’m not alone – whenever you read one of those stories about really successful people – not just with SEO companies, but in all walks of life – they always mention the name of someone who played a critical role in their success. Those people are mentors. And they can be critical to a young person’s life, helping them make the decisions and connections that lead to improved opportunities. I saw a report that says kids want someone in their lives who can help them stay on the right path, so they can graduate from high, maybe even college. They want to succeed. Unfortunately, there’s a big gap between the number of kids, especially for at-risk youth, in need of a mentor and the number of mentors available to help them. It’s such a shame, because mentoring is proven to really help young people, especially those at-risk kids. With a mentor, they have a better chance of succeeding – at school, at work and at life. And we all benefit when they succeed. It’s a win-win situation. I found some powerful statistics on mentoring.org. They say that, with a mentor, at-risk youth are:- 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school
- 55% more likely to be enrolled in college
- 46% less likely than their peers to start using drugs
- 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities
- 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities
- 130% – that’s more than twice as likely – to say that they held a leadership position in a club or sports team
- JFS Community Mentoring Program
- The Milagro Center