On January 21, the House approved, 397-0, a resolution (H. Res. 491) honoring individuals who mentor youth and supporting efforts to recruit more mentors in the United States. Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE) sponsored the resolution.
According to the resolution, “Mentoring offers a supportive environment in which young people can grow, expand their vision, learn necessary skills, and achieve a future that they may never have thought possible.” The resolution also notes that the United States has “a mentoring gap, consisting of over 15,000,000 young people who need mentors but do not have them.” Finally, the resolution states that nonprofit groups and leading media companies have joined together to designate January 2004 as National Mentoring Month.
Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) stated, “In today’s world, children need more than a sense of right and wrong. They need knowledge, and they need someone they can trust to provide it to them. The risk factors that face teenagers today are not only dangerous they are prevalent.”
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE) agreed and added, “Research has shown that mentoring benefits young people in a positive manner by increasing school attendance, improving rates of secondary school graduation and college attendance, decreasing involvement with drugs and alcohol, and reducing violent behavior.”
