Children’s Movement of Florida 2011 Legislative Agenda: Mentoring

Mentoring

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Mentoring programs connect children with caring adults and create the structure for a nurturing relationship. Florida once was the national leader in mentoring, creating more than 200,000 relationships through the Governor’s Mentoring Initiative launched in 1999 by Gov. Jeb Bush, which was embraced widely throughout the state by the public and private sectors. Unfortunately, funding for mentoring has decreased recently, and mentoring no longer seems a high priority for Florida's top elected leaders. Florida can being to regain its leadership on mentoring through these modest steps:

Charge the Florida Mentoring Partnership to update and reactivate the strategies that made Florida the national leader on mentoring: $100,000.

The Florida Mentoring Partnership is comprised of the major mentoring stakeholders in Florida. The Partnership does not currently have designated staff; Volunteer Fund USA contributes staffing support. By providing full time staff to the Partnership it can develop and implement a plan to expand access to mentoring statewide, coordinate existing services, enhance collaboration across mentoring programs and better leverage resources.

Because Volunteer Fund USA also administers Teen Trend Setters, it is recommended that this funding go to Florida’s Foundation, which does not implement a mentoring program directly and therefore has no perceived conflicts of interest, and has the staff expertise (but no current funding or direct staff capacity) to oversee the Mentoring Partnership.

Allocate the $15 million in the governor's proposed budget for mentoring to proven mentoring organizations named in the previous budget in the same amounts as in the 2010 appropriations.

In the 2011 proposed budget released by Gov. Rick Scott, $15 million is allocated for mentoring support to be administered by DOE.  The groups currently identified by the Florida Legislature as mentoring organizations in the 2011-2012 budget include Boys and Girls Club of Florida, Best Buddies, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Teen Trendsetters, Take Stock in Children and the YMCA. That $15 million should be allocated to these organizations and in the amount budgeted for 2010-2011.

Identify and collect common mentoring data statewide to inform planning, capacity, and measure impact of mentoring through DOE: Cost: NA.

While there is a data element for mentoring, DOE does not currently require districts to report mentoring data and does not have a specific set of data elements required of all districts. For example, DOE asks only for estimates, not specific numbers, and the results of the data collection therefore cannot be used consistently to inform the broader mentoring work statewide. As a result, mentoring groups still collect their own information and duplicate what should be a statewide system. Since mentoring groups must self-report their data, the Legislature may question the veracity of the data, and because it is not reported directly to DOE it is much more difficult for the DOE to then use this data to analyze results or even report specific data on mentored students. Creating a common set of mentoring data statewide and improving the collection of mentoring data, DOE would be better positioned, and can better position the mentoring organizations around the state, to more effectively invest mentoring resources.

Require longitudinal research by a third-party evaluator of Florida’s key mentoring programs: $80,000.

For several years Florida State University provided longitudinal analysis of mentoring for a number of the key mentoring groups in Florida. This was funded at approximately $80,000 per year by the Florida Mentoring Partnership and led to such results as recognizing where there were statewide gaps in mentoring services and providing data on the impact of mentoring on academic gains. These funds should be reinstated and the research reported annually to the Florida Legislature and the State Board of Education.