"Today's Vision, Tomorrow's Reality" | SMI speaks at Mentoring Conference

SMI’s Lori Norris Jordon spoke at the 2013 Northeast Regional Youth Mentoring Conference, held in Hartford, CT, where over 250 practitioners, researchers, and other mentoring stakeholders were brought together.  This year’s conference theme, “Today’s Vision, Tomorrow’s Reality”, brought to the forefront a greater focus on the future outcomes and impact that a caring adult can bring into the life of a young adult.

Lori’s presentation, “Graduation Guru, A City-School-Community Coalition” recommended a step-by-step unique approach that will create sustainable adult advocate systems across the community that can inspire a young person to realize their strengths and achieve their fullest potential. 

“Every young person can benefit from having a caring adult in their life. This is especially true for those who struggle academically, socially and emotionally. While academic mentors provide tremendous value to youth who are struggling academically, we also need adults who focus on the social-emotional needs of students. Gurus are members of the community who are invested in youth and their future. In order to offer this kind of support communities must have a systemic way to tap into the assets and availability of a set of adults readily available when called upon to provide this critical intervention.”  No small task, yet something we all can do when we create partnership approaches to youth issues.