The Harvard Mentoring Project

"Who Mentored You? 
Thank them...and pass it on.
Mentor a Child."

Top Celebrities Sign On for National Mentoring Month 2003

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Updated plans have been announced for the second annual National Mentoring Month (NMM) celebration scheduled for January 2003. Top Hollywood stars, political leaders, athletes, and journalists--including Tom Brokaw, Sen.Ted Kennedy, Sen. John McCain, Gen. Colin Powell, Bill Russell, Tim Russert, and Martin Sheen--will participate in this national public service campaign to recruit volunteer mentors for young people who are at risk of not achieving their full potential.

National Mentoring Month is a collaborative, public-private initiative sponsored by nonprofit organizations, media companies, and government agencies. National media partners include ABC (Disney), CBS (Viacom), Fox (News Corp.), NBC (GE), and several divisions of AOL Time Warner.

The goals of National Mentoring Month are to: raise awareness of mentoring in its various forms; recruit individuals to mentor, especially in programs that have a waiting list of young people; and promote the rapid growth of mentoring by recruiting organizations to engage their constituents in mentoring. Research has shown that programs that rely on volunteer mentors can play a powerful role in reducing drug abuse and youth violence, while greatly enhancing a young person's prospects for leading a healthy and productive life.

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In January 2002, the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR/ National Mentoring Partnership spearheaded the first-ever National Mentoring Month with the strong support of President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress, and leading governors and mayors across the country. In more than 40 states and cities, partnerships of mentoring programs, brought together under the umbrella of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, provided a local telephone number for prospective mentors to call, and handled placement of volunteers. In many other markets, similar roles were played by local affiliates of America's Promise-the Alliance for Youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Communities in Schools, and The Points of Light Foundation.

The Harvard Mentoring Project and MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership are leading the NMM 2003 effort. Nonprofit partners include: The Advertising Council, America's Promise-The Alliance for Youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, The Child Welfare League of America, Communities In Schools, Everybody Wins, The Grammy Foundation, Mentoring USA, National Association of Broadcasters, National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Points of Light Foundation, and Save the Children. 

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The White House is supporting NMM 2003 through the President's new USA Freedom Corps initiative. In addition, the President and Mrs. Bush serve as honorary chairs of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. The U.S. Department of Justice is participating in the campaign through its JUMP grants program and the National Mentoring Center.

The theme for NMM 2003 is "Who mentored you? Thank them…and pass it on!" The idea behind "Who mentored you?" is to help people connect to the importance of mentoring by encouraging them to think about individuals in their own lives-family members, teachers, coaches, clergy, neighbors-who provided support, showed them the ropes, and helped them become who they are today. The campaign's message is that, today, too many young people do not get enough of that kind of support, and mentoring programs can help fill the gap but need more volunteers.

A major public relations initiative will be built around the theme of "Who mentored you?" To support the effort, the Book of the Month Club (AOL Time Warner) will re-issue and promote Mrs. Matilda Cuomo's recent book, The Person Who Changed My Life, consisting of interviews with 80 leaders in various fields discussing the influence of mentors in their lives. Mrs. Cuomo is the founding chair of Mentoring USA. Her book includes contributions by Tony Bennett, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Elizabeth Dole, Gloria Estefan, James Earl Jones, and Christopher Reeve.

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The public relations initiative for NMM 2003 also will include the launch of a special web site developed by the Harvard Mentoring Project. The site will feature video and audio clips and written commentary from prominent people discussing important mentors in their own lives. Participants include Tom Brokaw, Sen. John McCain, Gen. Colin Powell, and Tim Russert, Sen.Ted Kennedy, and Bill Russell. The web site also will provide access to on-line greeting cards (e-cards) created for the campaign by Hallmark Cards, enabling people to reach out via e-mail to thank mentors who made significant contributions to their own lives. Lastly, the site will promote the theme of "Pass it on!" and direct interested persons to information about mentoring programs in local communities around the country that need volunteers.

The TV advertising for NMM 2003, produced by the Harvard Mentoring Project and by the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC networks, will extend the theme of "Pass it on!" by encouraging individuals to "Share what you know." The advertising will reinforce the idea that everyone has something of value to share with a young person. The ads will feature leading actors and personalities, including: Dennis Franz (ABC's NYPD Blue), Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing, and Janel Moloney (NBC's The West Wing), Larry King (CNN's Larry King Live), Doris Roberts (CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond), and Bernie Mac (Fox's The Bernie Mac Show).

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Renowned graphic artist Milton Glaser has created a logo for NMM 2003 on behalf of the Harvard Mentoring Project. Margeotes, Fertitta+Partners Inc has created a series of print ads and radio spots for NMM 2003 on behalf of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership.

The national advertising for NMM 2003 directs individuals to www.mentoring.org, the web site of MENTOR/National Mentoring Month, for background on mentoring and information on programs around the country that need volunteers.  

The "Who mentored you?" and "Share what you know" initiatives are the latest components of an ongoing national media campaign spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project in collaboration with its broadcast and nonprofit partners. Over the past five years, the campaign has received over $200 million in donated television airtime, and has generated close to one million inquiries from people seeking information on mentoring programs in their own communities. Findings from an informal survey conducted by the Harvard Mentoring Project suggest that approximately 20% of callers have become mentors. The Harvard Mentoring Project is an initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Health Communication, which previously created the National Designated Driver Campaign.

For more information, please contact:

The Harvard Mentoring Project
677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115 
Tel: 617-432-1038 
Fax: 617-731-8184 
E-mail: mentor@hsph.harvard.edu

Center for Health Communication

Copyrigh, 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College