Call for Proposals: 2017 National Mentoring Summit

Posted by National Mentoring Partnership on June 20, 2016

Call for Proposals!

MENTOR is now accepting workshop proposals for the 2017 National Mentoring Summit, February 1st-3rd in Washington D.C. Submit a workshop proposal by Friday June 24th to highlight the work your program is doing on a national stage!

Workshop Information
The 2017 National Mentoring Summit will center around relationships and the essential role they play in mentoring and in real life. Forging, creating, activating, inspiring, leveraging, and maintaining effective relationships are key to mentoring young people, as well as increasing private sector engagement in mentoring, furthering the national dialogue on mentoring, and expanding public policy to advance quality mentoring. Workshop proposals are encouraged to explore how effective relationships are part of the proposed topic, and provide attendees with practical tools and knowledge to bring to their own programs, investments and communities. Additionally, MENTOR continues to be guided by its work running the National Mentoring Resource Center in collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Launched at the 2015 National Mentoring Summit, this resource aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of mentoring across the country by providing comprehensive mentoring resources, supported by local training and technical assistance. The development of the National Mentoring Resource Center was guided by a national needs assessment through which Mentoring Partnerships and mentoring programs identified key needed resources to more effectively support their work.

Workshop presenters are encouraged to focus workshop topics and themes on the following areas:
 Mentoring and national challenges, such as addressing poverty, truancy, and violence through mentoring.
 Advocacy and public policy work.
 Collaborations, including private sector engagement and cross-sector initiatives.
 Exemplary program models, including group, team, and peer mentoring programs, as well as culturally specific approaches to working with target populations.
 Innovations to close the mentoring gap, including leveraging technology and natural mentoring.
 Research, including new research findings, trends in data collection and outcome measurement, and research-based implications for practitioners.
 Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™, including best practices in program operations and evaluation.
 Supporting the mentoring relationship, including strategies to help mentors and youth bond.
 Mentoring specific youth populations, including system-involved youth, military families, tribal populations, youth of color, youth with mental disabilities, and youth in foster care.

This year’s Summit features five conference tracks that will guide attendees as they make their workshop selections. Attendees can use these tracks during registration to find workshops most applicable to their roles and interests. We recognize that not all proposal topics are compatible with these tracks, and will not be reviewing or selecting workshops based on this criteria. These tracks are meant as a resource to simplify the registration process.

 Advocacy, tailored towards program staff, mentors and other advocates. This track covers strategies and opportunities to leverage relationships with government officials and other influencers to garner support for expanding access to quality youth mentoring.
 Philanthropic Partnerships, tailored towards philanthropists and corporate/foundation representatives who invest financial and human capital in youth mentoring initiatives. This track focuses on the role youth mentoring programs can play in meeting business, philanthropic and community goals. We will discuss mentoring trends, elevate effective practices and share the latest field research that can help inform financial investments in mentoring as well as shape the design, implementation, innovation and evaluation of youth mentoring programs.
 Culturally Specific Practices, tailored towards practitioners interested in learning bestpractices when working with ethnically and racially diverse populations. This track examines how program models use racial and ethnic identity as an intentional strategy to improve youth outcomes.
 Research, tailored towards researchers and practitioners looking to implement new research findings. This track covers both new research on mentoring relationships, services and outcomes, as well as sessions on how to conduct research and assess and evaluate programs and relationships.
 Supporting the Mentoring Match, tailored towards program staff and mentors who work directly with matches. This track focuses on how to best support matches in their relationship

 Proposals due: June 24, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

http://www.mentoring.org/our-work/events/national-mentoring-summit/