The guidance and support of good mentors are critical to success at every stage of life. Students who benefit from strong mentors are more likely to maintain focus, earn higher grades, finish high school, and proceed to college.

Project Ready Mentor helps students progress academically and intellectually, benefit from enrichment opportunities, and develop important skills, attitudes, and aptitudes that position them for success during and after high school. This National Urban League signature program enhancement, funded by the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Abbvie Foundation, and a range of local community funders, specifically targets 11 to 18-year-old African American and other urban youth who are particularly vulnerable to disengagement from school, community, and the workforce.

With over 9,000 youth served since 2020, the Project Ready Mentor program continues to provide the encouragement and inspiration students need to thrive academically, personally, and socially. Below, read success stories from several Project Ready Mentor program mentees and mentors about the impact the program has had on their lives. 
 

Success Stories

Our Approach

Youth success is often chiefly attributed to school-based factors, yet academic accomplishment is not the only consideration. Rather, to grow into responsible adults, youth require a range of appropriate supports, services, and opportunities, only some of which exist in their communities and home lives.

These opportunities and supports can exist in a mentor relationship, community-based program, or internship. For most urban and vulnerable youth, the location of meaningful relationships and opportunities matters far less than their sustained presence and quality.

Project Ready Mentor provides these resources and supports via two approaches:

1. RELATIONAL APPROACH: Aims to develop a sense of efficacy and a close, trusting emotional connection between the mentor and mentee via activities, such as reading and discussing books or magazine articles where there is common interest or volunteering together.
2. INSTRUMENTAL APPROACH: Focuses primarily on encouraging the mentee to grow and learn through goal-oriented activities found in Project Ready, including going on college visits together, working on projects such as building a robot, and developing a small business/ entrepreneur plan together

Our Impact