Seven AT&T Aspire Mentoring Corps VISTAS Begin Year of Service

MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is excited to be building the capacity of mentoring programs around the country by launching the AT&T Aspire Mentoring Corps. Seven AmeriCorps VISTA members began their service this week in MENTOR’s Boston office and Mentoring Partnerships around the country, where they will serve for one year. This increased capacity for our network of affiliate Mentoring Partnerships will be critical in advancing our key services to the mentoring field, including the National Quality Mentoring System, Corporate Mentoring Challenge and training and technical assistance services. In alignment with the mission of AmeriCorps VISTA, the Aspire Mentoring Corps will create sustainable tools, resources and infrastructure for their host sites that will support our work for years to come.

The seven AmeriCorps VISTA members come from diverse backgrounds and geographies, bringing fresh new perspectives to our Network. Corps members include Andrew Catanzariti (Host site: MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership), Melissa Seidenberg (Host site: MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership), Rachel Henderson (Host site: Kansas Mentors), Midas Hampton (Host site: Mentoring Works Washington), Samantha Sawyer (Host site: Illinois Mentoring Partnership), Kristiane Schmidt (Host site: Mentor Michigan) and Jaye Han (Host site: Mentoring Partnership of New York). These Corps members will work on local and national initiatives that strive toward two key goals: building the capacity of youth mentoring programs and increasing private sector engagement in mentoring.

The Aspire Mentoring Corps is an innovative public-private partnership between MENTOR and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) with support from AT&T. The Aspire Mentoring Corps was announced in July of 2014 with President Barack Obama at an event to celebrate key commitments to the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. The My Brother’s Keeper Task Force identified quality mentoring as a critical support for young people and recommended the AmeriCorps program be further leveraged to deliver on this promise.

MENTOR would like to thank AT&T and CNCS for their partnership in launching the Aspire Mentoring Corps. MENTOR and our network of affiliate Mentoring Partnerships are extremely excited by the passion and enthusiasm of our seven AmeriCorps VISTA members, and we look forward to hosting them for the coming year!

This blog post originally appeared on Mentoring.org.