January is National Mentoring Month

Most calendar months have several social causes associated with them. By integrating a nationally celebrated month into your annual communications plan, you might be able to create publicity for your organization that you may not have otherwise gotten. (For a great list of commemorative dates, try this page on wikipedia.)

Since January is right around the corner, and since there are so many organizations out there that focus on kids, I thought it might be nice to highlight National Mentoring Month.


National Mentoring Month is a project of the National Mentoring Partnership and will mark its seventh year in 2008. It is designed to focus national attention on the need for mentors as well as how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities, and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors.

Any organization that works with kids could:

1. generate a press release calling for new volunteers that could serve as mentors,
   
2. could include stories and photos on their website or in their newsletter highlighting mentor/mentee relationships that already exist in their organization, or
   
3. could schedule an event honoring key volunteers that have served as mentors within the organization for a long time.
   

Any of these ideas, among many others, could generate great coverage in local press. Of course, if you have other ideas, please feel free to comment below to share them with other readers.