DSABC celebrates National Mentoring Month with thank-you luncheon

 Program’s success leads to demand for more mentors

 Danbury Schools and Business Collaborative (DSABC) is celebrating January’s National Mentoring Month (NMM) with a “Thank You Luncheon & Workshop” to recognize its more than 300 mentoring volunteers. For more than 25 years, the non-profit organization has matched students in the Danbury Public Schools and Henry Abbott Regional Technical School with mentors.

The luncheon will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at Cartus. Keynote speaker Dr. Deneen Harris, assistant professor of Social Work at Western Connecticut State University, will discuss “Mentoring Diverse Youth.”

The success of the mentoring program is dependent on volunteers. To keep up with the demand for mentors, DSABC is also looking for more qualified individuals to step up and volunteer. There is currently a waitlist for students seeking mentors in the two school-based programs. In the “One-on-One” mentoring program, there are more than 50 students on the waitlist with a need for 12 male mentors to work with high school boys. There is a need for 45 mentors in the “Workplace Learning E-Mentoring.”

According to statistics from NMM, with a mentor, at-risk youth are more likely to go to college, less likely than their peers to start using drugs, more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities and more than twice as likely as their peers to hold a leadership position in a club or sports team.

For more information on DSABC events or to become a mentor, go to www.dsabcmentors.org.

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Submitted by Danbury, CT

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