Hey, would you mind posting this video on your Facebook page or blog? It’s our commercial for The Mentoring Project. Things are going well, to say the least. We continue to add mentors, and are hiring staff that will take us national. Exciting stuff. But the more we seed the idea that the church can provide mentors, the easier our job will be. All you have to do is embed this Vimeo video on your blog, or use the buttons to share the video with others. Much appreciated. The Mentoring Project – Elephant Musth Cycle from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.
For the last few months we have been interviewing candidates for the position of Executive Director of The Mentoring Project. We are pleased to announce we have found our man! Our vision of mentoring ten-thousand kids through one-thousand church-based programs is underway but it just got a shot in the arm. We will also be announcing new hires here shortly, but for now, by way of introduction is the press release issued by our Board of Directors. Thanks everybody! **For Immediate Release** We are excited to announce we have hired Dr. John Sowers to lead The Mentoring Project. John has served on our board for the last year and we look forward to bringing all his talents and vision to head the project. As an executive committee, we have also decided to change the title of our lead position from Executive Director to President, so John will be taking on that title as he leads us forward. John grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas without a father in his life. He came to faith in Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade in the 10th grade. At the age of 18, a man named Bill Smith came into his life [...]
14Apr, 2009
As I’ve mentioned, this week we launched the new Mentoring Project website at www.thementoringproject.org. Thanks to all of you who have visited the site and told your friends about it. We are recruiting ten-thousand mentors through one-thousand church based programs. We already have eighty mentors, seven churches and over 300 people are giving small monthly donations to keep us going. Our vision is huge, and we are supported by a grass roots campaign of people just like you. If you give a monthly donation, or are planning on giving, would you mind clicking on your photo-booth or webcam application and uploading a video to you-tube to tell us why you give? I will then feature it on this blog and on our donation site itself. We hear such beautiful stories about why this issue is important to people, and we want the world to hear those stories directly from you guys. Make sure to lead the video with your name and location (if you are comfortable) and then tell us why providing mentors for fatherless kids is important to you. You can let me know about your video through the comment option here on this blog entry, and I [...]
08Apr, 2009
My roomate, Justin, teaches at a school in a rough neighborhood here in Portland, and it happens to be a school that partners with The Mentoring Project, a mentoring program I started a couple years ago. We are now mentoring 65 kids and are rapidly expanding our reach. We provide mentors to kids through church-based programs and believe strongly the church holds a big chunk of the solution to the fatherlessness crisis in America. One of the many ways I get feedback about our program is through Justin. He actually sees our mentors showing up at his school to spend time with their kids. A story he told me last night took me back thirty years to similar memories from my own life. One of the kids at Justin’s school has a dad who has been issued a restraining order. Our mentors name is Ross Hallbach and for the sake of privacy I’ll refer to his mentee as David. Ross was recruited through a church’s partnership with TMP, and then trained by our staff. Ross has been mentoring David for about six months and shows up for an after school program once each week (though they spend time together outside [...]
Took part in a conference call this week with the Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives in D.C. This government organization was started by George W. Bush and has been continued by President Obama. The program is being run by Joshua Dubois, a friend who worked as a liaison to the religious community for Barack Obama when he was a senator. Among other things, the CFBCI hopes to level the playing field by helping faith-based organizations who work with the poor and marginalized get access to federal funding. There are no “faith-based dollars” but the CFBCI will work with organizations to help them understand how federal funding works and how to apply. In addition, the CFBCI has announced their four areas of focus, and I thought you might find them interesting: 1. Work to integrate faith-based organizations in the economic recovery. 2. Promote responsible fatherhood and healthy families. 3. Reduce the need for abortions. 4. Foster inner-religious dialogue between people of different faith backgrounds. I’ll be meeting with the CFBCI about twice a month, when I’m able to sit on on the conference call, and I’ll keep you informed of their progress. It all sounds really good to me and [...]
