September 9, 2005

INFORMATIONAL

TO:

Division Superintendents

FROM:

Jo Lynne DeMary

Superintendent of Public Instruction

SUBJECT:

Virginia Mentoring Partnership Survey

Based on information from MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, it is estimated that more than 143,000 students across the commonwealth want or are in need of a mentor. The Virginia Mentoring Partnership is working to ensure those youth who could benefit from a positive mentoring experience receive a mentor, and those youth that are currently involved in a mentoring program are in an effective and sustainable program.

Citizens across the commonwealth want to help students. The Virginia Mentoring Partnership (VMP) is creating a directory that will help these potential volunteers find mentoring and tutoring opportunities in their community schools.

Founded in 1994, VMP is a leading resource on mentoring activities in the commonwealth. Primary services include best practices to train volunteer mentors/tutors and provide technical assistance and training to mentor program coordinators.

An online survey, titled: "Assessing the State of Mentoring in Virginia," has been designed to:

Develop and maintain a directory of active mentoring

programs in Virginia

Facilitate access to mentoring services for volunteers

and youth

Assess the growth of mentoring in Virginia

Educate mentoring program providers about the best

practices involved in running an effective and

sustainable mentoring program

VMP plans to distribute the survey to the following groups:

Public elementary, middle, and high school principals

Mentoring program providers VMP is aware of through

their own database and the National Mentoring

Partnerships database

Volunteer centers across Virginia

Parent Teacher Associations (PTA)

Faith-based groups

Other nonprofit/charitable organizations that may have

mentoring programs

Please encourage your principals to participate. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and can be completed online (hard copy can be requested if needed). The web address to access the survey is: http://surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=532001095355

For additional information about the survey, please contact Alyssa Georgelas or Jennifer Smith-Slabaugh at (804) 828-1536 or vamentor@vcu.edu. Questions may also be addressed to the director of student services, Cynthia Cave, at 804-225-2871 or: cynthia.cave@doe.Virginia.gov.

JLD/ADC/erc