VCU’s Virginia Mentoring Partnership Announces Outstanding Mentor and Mentoring Programs Awards

By Mike Porter

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Virginia Mentoring Partnership  will honor two individuals and two organizations for outstanding efforts that make a difference in the lives of children. 

The honorees will be recognized during the 8th Annual Virginia Mentoring Awards & Statewide Conference on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2009, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

The following people will be recognized as outstanding individual mentors of the year:

• Marty Bland, Capital One Mentorships Program, Richmond, has mentored two students at Broad Rock Elementary School for each of the last three years and is being recognized for his efforts to recruit, lead and mentor.

• Robert N. Melvin, Ph.D., Success-Oriented Students (S.O.S.) Youth Empowerment Program, Woodbridge, is being honored for more than 25 years of work in youth development, including helping young people rebuild their lives after incarceration.

The following organizations will be recognized as outstanding mentoring programs of the year:

• Richmond Public Schools is being recognized for developing relationships with community partners for recruiting, training and coordinating volunteers to mentor children. Currently, 850 partnerships reach more than 5,500 students.

• The Bucknell-West Potomac Mentoring Partnership, Fairfax County Public Schools, Alexandria, is being recognized for a program that pairs high school mentors with elementary school mentees for tutoring and other activities after school.

The Virginia Mentoring Partnership is a nonprofit agency that was founded in 1994 and operates as part of VCU’s Division of Community Engagement. The partnership provides training and technical assistance to mentoring programs throughout Virginia and has prepared more than 20,000 Virginia volunteers for their roles as mentors and tutors.