12 organizations are members of Omaha’s Midlands Mentoring Partnership.
January is National Mentoring Month. Whitney Mastin is Director of Operations for the Midlands Mentoring Partnership. She says those 12 organizations account for about 3,000 mentor matches in Omaha.
Mastin says mentors play an important role in a young person’s personal development.
"Not only does it increase their academic achievement and improve their school attendance, but it also improves their non-cognitive skills. So their resilience to bounce back from things that might not be going so well in their lives, their grit to keep on trying and trying, even if they're failing. And mentoring has been shown to decrease risky behaviors."
Mastin says there’s a need in the community for more mentors. Information on mentoring and the 12 organizations that are members of the Partnership is available at www.mmpomaha.org.