Congraulations to Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa for recruiting 10,000 potential new mentors throughout the duration of the 2011 Coaches' Mentoring Challenge!  While the challenge itself has ended, numerous children in Iowa are still in need of mentors.  Sign Up Today to become a mentor in your local community.

News and Updates

For the first time, the Iowa Mentoring Partnership is participating in a "Coaches Mentoring Challenge" with Kansas Mentors and TeamMates of Nebraska.

The National Mentoring Partnership has identified 15 million youth in need of a mentor. Thousands of these youth live in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. In an effort to help close the gap, University of Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini, Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder, Kansas University Coach Turner Gill, University of Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz (pictured above filming a 2011 Coaches' Challenge PSA with a number of local mentoring matches) and Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads have issued a friendly challenge to see which state can recruit the most new mentors.

The Coaches' Challenge (http://www.volunteeriowa.org/coaches-challenge.aspx) officially kicked off on August 1, 2011 and Iowa was crowned the winner of the local Iowa/Nebraska challenge on November 25, 2011 in Lincoln, NE at the University of Iowa v. University of Nebraska football game.  On November 26, 2011, at the Iowa State University v. Kansas State University football game in in Manhattan, KS, Kansas was awarded the overall winner of the 2011 Coaches' Challenge.

2010 Volunteering in America Report Ranks Iowa as 4th in the Nation for Mentoring!

For the second consecutive year, Iowa has achieved the second-highest volunteer rate in the country with 37.9 percent of Iowans devoting time to help others in 2010. Iowans devoted a total of 93.4 million hours to volunteering in 2010 and provided more than $2 billion in services to Iowa. Additionally, Iowa ranked first in volunteer retention rate, meaning that more volunteers are staying in their volunteer opportunity. The spirit of Iowa's volunteerism is exemplified in individual cities as well. Iowa has more cities (four) than any other state in the top 20 of overall rankings.

Finally, we are proud to highlight that the percentage of Iowans mentoring youth has increased from 17th to fourth in the nation over the last few years. 2010 marks the highest ranking for mentoring in Iowa, to date. The Iowa Mentoring Partnership has been a priority of the commission for the past five years and we are excited to continue expanding mentoring in Iowa. Congratulations to the local mentoring programs in our state who dedicate their time and talents to the mentoring field each day!

To view the full 2010 Volunteering in America Report, please visit http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/IA.

E-Mentoring Initiatve Launched

The Iowa Mentoring Partnership is proud to support the efforts of E-Mentoring initiatives throughout the state by offering a secure, electronic platform for E-Mentoring realtionships to develop.

The online system serves as the source of electronic communication between e-mentors and e-mentees and provides opportunities for program adminstrators to make matches, monitor communication and provide support for matches.

Please also take a moment to view the Iowa Mentoring Partnership's E-Mentoring Manual to learn more about the ways E-Mentoring can be incorporated into traditional, face-to-face mentoring programs!

Peer Mentoring Program Launched

The members of the Iowa Mentoring Partnership's Public Education Committee recently matched three certified programs with a peer mentor program. While the Peer Mentoring Program is a new initiative for the Iowa Mentoring Partnership (IMP), seven programs have already volunteered to share their mentoring expertise and experience by serving as a peer mentor program.

All programs that are seeking first-time certification with the IMP will be offered the assistance of a peer mentor program that matches the structure and essential elements of their own program. In addition, all certified mentoring programs may express their interest in receiving a peer mentor program through a recurring question that will be added to the IMP's Quarterly Reports.

 The Iowa Mentoring Partnership's website is generously hosted through a partnership with Iowa Health System. 

Contact Us:
   
Iowa Mentoring Partnership
c/o Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service
200 East Grand Ave
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
800.308.5987
mentor@iowa.gov