A special logo, seen above, was created for the campaign.

McCain’s story is one of more than a dozen examples about the mentoring relationship offered by well-known figures participating in the second annual National Mentoring Month (NMM) campaign, a public-private initiative to recruit volunteer mentors for young people. Leading the campaign are the Harvard Mentoring Project of the Center for Health Communication at HSPH and MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, an organization based in Alexandria, VA.

National Mentoring Month was established last year and is held each January. The theme of this year’s campaign is "Who mentored you? Thank them...and pass it on!"

Jay Winsten

There is solid evidence that mentoring is an important public health tool, said Winsten. For example, an impact study of 1,000 young people by Big Brothers Big Sisters and Public/Private Ventures, a national nonprofit organization, indicated that children with mentors were less likely to begin using illegal drugs or alcohol, skip school, and engage in school violence.

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership has estimated that 17.6 million American children could benefit from mentoring, but only 2.5 million are involved in a formal mentoring relationship.

The NMM 2003 campaign is a collaborative effort. The Center for Health Communication is providing strategic direction and is spearheading the national media effort. The center also has developed a web site, www.whomentoredyou.org, that features McCain and other figures conveying personal stories about mentoring through essays and video clips. The web site provides links to information about mentoring programs in local communities around the country and offers access to electronic Hallmark Cards especially created for the campaign to thank mentors.

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership has created a national network of state and local mentoring partnerships that are leading the campaign in their areas. The partnership’s web site, www.mentoring.org, provides extensive information about mentoring and maintains a database of local programs that need volunteers.

The White House is supporting the NMM campaign through the President’s USA Freedom Corps initiative, a massive web-based public-private enterprise that helps people find volunteer opportunities.

ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and Time Warner Cable are running public service announcements produced by the networks and the Harvard Mentoring Project featuring actors and personalities talking about the campaign.

Various advertising agencies have put together print ads, outdoor ads, and radio spots describing the campaign.

Winsten said that local media outlets will play a major role in reaching out to people who want to aid their own communities. Local nonprofit partners are leading mentoring campaigns in 40 to 50 markets, he said.

If last year’s National Mentoring Month campaign is an indicator, the 2003 campaign should prove successful. Last year, approximately 70,000 people visited www.mentoring.org during the campaign, and about 10,000 people called a national toll-free number for more information.