Sebelius, Snyder announce Governor’s Conference on Mentoring
Gathering to take place February 13 in Topeka

As part of National Mentoring Month, Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Coach Bill Snyder today announced an opportunity for Kansans to take part in the first-ever Governor’s Conference on Mentoring. 

The conference, which is free of charge, will be held February 13 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka.

“This conference will help Kansans get involved in mentoring, either by participating in an existing program or by working to start one in their community,” Sebelius said.  “We’ll also have an opportunity to talk with mentoring experts on ways to reach more children and to get more caring adults involved in mentoring.”

The Kansas Mentors’ Leadership Council will meet in conjunction with the conference and will make recommendations for how to allocate approximately $200,000 worth of state funds to mentoring groups. This council is composed of executives and leaders in the public and private sectors who have proven to be influential members of their communities.

“These grants will help expand mentoring efforts across the state so more young Kansans can have quality mentors,” Sebelius said.

“With the statewide conference, the announcement of the grants, and the upcoming regional trainings, it’s a very exciting time for mentoring efforts across Kansas,” Coach Snyder said. 

The conference will provide training sessions in the following four areas:

• Risk management for mentoring programs
• Using the Elements of Effective Practice™
• Grant writing
• Marketing and recruitment 

Dr. Susan G. Weinberger, a nationally renowned expert on mentoring, will give the luncheon address.  According to a recent report by MENTOR, there are currently 15 million young Americans are in need of mentors.  Weinberger will discuss this mentoring gap and offer insights for how to reduce it.

Kansas Mentors recently conducted a survey trying to identify the mentoring gap in Kansas.  Results of the survey will be released at the conference during the facilitated discussions, which are designed to gather feedback from the field about how to increase mentoring opportunities across the state.

The feedback obtained during these discussions will be used to help formulate the curriculum for Kansas Mentors upcoming regional training sessions.

For more information about or to register for the conference please visit: http://www.ksmentors.ks.gov/news.htm.

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