Special Initiatives
MMP and PYD collaboration helps meet needs
of mentors or mentees with disabilities
With the conclusion of a two-year grant from the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, two nonprofit organizations – Partners for Youth with Disabilities (PYD) and Mass Mentoring Partnership (MMP) -- have introduced a suite of enhanced resources for mentoring programs to help them better understand and meet the needs of youth with disabilities who come through their doors.
"When we made the decision two years ago to fund the Inclusion Mentoring Project, our hope was that mentoring programs of all shapes and sizes would be better equipped to serve youths with -- and without -- disabilities," said Rayna Aylward, Executive Director of Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation. "It’s been exciting to witness the collaborative efforts of PYD and Mass Mentoring take shape. We’re particularly pleased that there are now a variety of resources available for every youth mentoring program to help their services be more inclusive of children with disabilities and adults who volunteer to serve as mentors."
As a result of the Inclusion Mentoring Project, MMP's core trainings and technical assistance services now reflect inclusive practices. In addition, agencies that tap into Mass Mentoring’s services for starting a mentoring program will be introduced to the tools and resources needed to create an initiative inclusive of youth with disabilities.
"When mentoring programs can build their capacity to meet the needs of both the youth they serve, and the mentors who enter their lives, both gain enormous, lifelong benefits. This project provides the kind of resources to help programs better meet the needs of a population that has been overlooked for too long, while also allowing our own organization to adopt the principles of inclusion in everything we do," said David Shapiro, CEO of MMP.
Regina Snowden, executive director of PYD added, "We believe that youth – regardless of their situation or ability – can develop great skills, and build meaningful relationships through mentoring. However, we also know that the hundreds of mentoring programs help to forge those mentoring relationships may not always have the resources they need to support a match in which the youth has a disability. The Inclusion Mentoring Project was designed to help bridge that gap."
To learn more about training and technical assistance resources developed through the Inclusion Mentoring Project, contact Sue Anne Endelman, MMP’s Vice President for Training and Strategic Services, 617-695-2430, saendelman@massmentors.org ; or Sheila Tunney, Director of PYD’s Mentoring and National Center, 617-556-4075,stunney@pyd.org.
To visit MMP's training and technical assistance calendar, Click here.