I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet Susan L. Taylor twice this year. Each time I walk away from a meeting with her, I feel inspired and literally moved to do more.
On Friday, Lamar and I sat down with the Essence Magazine Editor-in-Chief Emeritus to talk about her involvement as spokesperson for General Mills Feeding Dreams and the National CARES Mentoring Movement, an organization that she founded in 2006. We will be posting our interview on the site later this week.
As a side note, you can best believe that Lamar and I were star struck as we sat down with her to talk about the status of her current endeavors. We even had lunch with her after the interview and I was soaking it all in as she spoke about the things that she was doing, the places she’s been and the people that she knew. She is such a genuine person and everything about her exudes compassion, love, and commitment.
When Susan Taylor talks about the National CARES Mentoring Movement, you can literally feel the passion that she has for helping our struggling Black children receive success academically and socially. She felt so strongly about this, that she turned over the reigns at Essence so that she could dedicate 100% of her time to this charge.
The National Cares Mentoring Movement’s mission is to recruit Black adults to become mentors by giving at least one hour of week to a local mentoring program or youth support organization.
With the downturn of the economy, mentors are needed now more than ever. More and more people are living in poverty and the government is decreasing many of the programs designed to help them. Why do we have a need for more Black adults to become mentors?
? Of all Black fourth graders in the nation, 58% are functionally illiterate.
? 85% of Black school children are reading below grade level
? In some cities, 80% of our boys drop out before finishing high school
? Every day 1,000 black babies are born to girls under the age of 18
And the list goes on. Black people, we are in a state of emergency and we need to work together if we are going to change the future for our youth. There are a significant number of Black youngsters waiting for mentors”...but not enough Black adults volunteering to become mentors.
What has kept me from mentoring so far. Here is my list of excuses (they are valid”...but pretty weak compared to the need that we have in our community)
- I have four kids of my own and I can not find the time to volunteer. Shooot….I am mentoring them.
- I am scared to commit to something because what if they want more time than I can give.
- I am too tired.
- I don’t know how to mentor and how to get started.
And actually I am being a little hard on myself; I did volunteer to become the co-leader of my daughter’s girl scout troop that starts meeting again and I signed up to participate on some PTA committees this year. But somehow, I feel the need to reach outside of my circle and my immediate community and volunteer in an area where the need is greater. While we are not living in Bel Air, we are living in an area where the overall test scores for our schools are pretty high and the drop out rate is low. I want to step outside of this community to make a change in a young person’s life.
This is where the National Cares Mentoring Program has stepped in to make it easier for you and me to become a mentor. In just 3 easy steps you can sign up to become a mentor in your local area. They will provide you with a list of organizations in your area and you can select the one that you want to be involved with. I did it and it takes minutes.
Also, if you know of a mentoring organization in your area that is working effectively to help the youth in our communities, please make sure they are registered with Mentor, the largest free online registry of mentoring organizations in the nation www.mentoring.org/register .
They are only asking for a minimum of one hour a week. Just one hour a week. I thought about it and I am sure that I can squeeze at least one hour a week out of my schedule. And if not, then I know that I can give up something like say watching TV, to make this happen.
BMWK family, please check out the National Cares Mentoring Program and consider volunteering to become a mentor. Please share this post with your family and friends and encourage them to become mentors too. When I think about how many readers we have on this site and on Facebook, I know we could really make a difference if all of us gave at least one hour per week.
BMWK Family ““ They say that when there is a call for mentors, African Americans are least likely to volunteer (despite the fact that so many of black youth need mentors.) Why do you think that is? Are you mentoring now? If yes, please share with us what you are doing. If you are not mentoring, please share with us what is preventing you from becoming a mentor?
*Source – https://www.caresmentoring.org/