Last summer, 21 people from across the country embarked on a year of service. They were placed at 18 Massachusetts programs, including Mass Mentoring. Their task? Help their host sites more effectively meet the mentoring needs of local youth.
In a closing ceremony at Bank of America on July 23 for the 2009-10 Highland Street Corps Ambassadors of Mentoring, the full might of their work was on unmistakable display for the dozens of supervisors, mentoring staff, funders, and special guests that packed the room.
Blake Jordan, executive director of the Highland Street Foundation, was on hand to help celebrate the Corps' achievements. This was the Corps' second year of operation through MMP, and they far surpassed all of the goals they had strived to reach. In serving more than 35,000 collective hours, they 
impressively recruited almost 700 new mentors - an astonishing 300 percent increase over last year. They also trained more than 600 mentors, mentees and parents, which ultimately facilitated hundreds of successful mentoring relationships.
"We wanted to start a mentoring program to help Boston's youth stay in college by pairing them with recent college graduates," said Bob Giannino-Racine, executive director of ACCESS. Their Ambassador, Kira Glassman, helped launch their first-ever mentoring program. "While we started out small, the program was a tremendous success - all 25 of our mentees have enrolled in their second year of college, which far outpaces the national average for young people like them."
In fact, the success of MMP's Highland Street Ambassadors of Mentoring program has not gone unnoticed from other state mentoring partnerships, some of which are looking into replicating the program, and leading funders, who have inquired about projects related to their specific impact areas.
"Our Ambassador, Brooke, has forged connections all over the community, and has made our name much more of a presence in the area," said Vera Cooley, case management supervisor at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County. Brooke Canada, their Ambassador, expanded the organization's outreach to their matches and the community.
Beyond work they accomplished at their individual host sites, the Ambassadors came together at various times throughout the year to collaborate on projects that would benefit the entire field of mentoring. They ambitiously tackled four: first off was Youth Mentoring Day at the State House, as part of National Mentoring Month 2010, which brought more than 200 state legislators, mentoring program staff, mentors and mentees to the State House. They also held the first-ever Mentoring Day at Six Flags in June, where more than 100 mentors and mentees from around the state were able to enjoy a fun-filled day at Six Flags New England. To cap it all off, they created the Mass Matches website, which showcases their final two projects: two mentoring PSAs for programs to use and distribute, as well as a match activities resource to help matches plan fun activities to enjoy together.
Additionally, the 2009-10 Corps:
- Generated 1,440 volunteer inquiries
- Received 2,350 hours of training and professional development
- Launched the Highland Street Corps Blog to document their service
"This is an incredibly diverse body of work, in keeping with the host sites and the members themselves," said MMP President and CEO David Shapiro. "This effort was once an ambitious dream, but it's come to reality in a way that is just powerful and inspiring."
