Building a Durham Youth Mentoring Alliance

An Overview

Building a Durham Youth Mentoring Alliance

The City of Durham’s Office on Youth (OOY) is partnering with Youth Mentoring Collaborative (YMC) to facilitate new mentoring partnerships, connections, and engagement opportunities for young people. This initiative will bring together mentoring organizations, young people, and community members across Durham to identify shared priorities and inform the creation of a Durham Youth Mentoring Alliance.

This work will lead to an action plan that reflects the collective priorities and recommendations that emerge from the engagements. The action plan will guide the next steps for building the Alliance and will be presented at the Carolinas Youth Mentoring Symposium in October 2024 and shared widely.

“If we can provide them with the resources and opportunities to stay engaged with their community, learn from one another, and have influential role models who believe in them, that can lead to a brighter future.”

Mayor Leonardo Williams, City of Durham

Overall Goals of the Process

Develop and share an online Mentoring Map of mentoring resources in Durham that the public can use to search and learn about existing opportunities.
Host a series of conversations with organizations and young people to better understand the mentoring ecosystem in Durham and collectively recommend strategies to enhance collaboration and communication across programs.
Organize spaces and opportunities for relationship-building, sharing ideas, dreaming, having fun together, and fostering meaningful connections.

How the Community can get involved

Mentoring organizations can register for the Mentoring Map. A member of the YMC team will follow up with registered programs to schedule a conversation to learn more about the services provided.
Join a listening session with mentoring providers and young people. Follow @ymcollaborative and @youthspeakDURM, or @CityofDurhamNC on social media, or reach out to the contacts below to learn when the listening sessions are happening.

Core Team

The Core Team facilitates engagement opportunities and conversations, captures stories that bring the work of mentoring programs to life, and provides thought partnership throughout all steps of the initiative.

We are proud to work with the following Organizational Representatives on the Core Team:

Douglass Coleman - BOOST
Larry Thomas - Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy
Tiffany Swoope - GRACED Inc.
Dominique Oliver - Made In Durham

The following individuals are Youth Ambassadors who also serve on the Core Team:

Michaelle Briones - BOOST
Adalo Gusa - NC School of Science and Math and BOOST
Ethan Macklin- Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy
Michael Kirkland- GRACED Inc.
Trinity Richardson - YMC Policy in Action Committee
Julissa Aguilar-Galdamez - YMC Policy in Action Committee

OOY and YMC Staff

OOY and YMC work in collaboration with a Core Team of local mentoring organizations and Youth Ambassadors to lead this effort and ensure the voices and experiences of young people and mentoring organizations across Durham are centered in the process.

The following individuals listed are staff from the Durham Office on Youth:

Lara Khalil, Director
Nori McDuffie, Youth Project Assistant

The following individuals are Youth Mentoring Collaborative Staff assisting with this partnership:

Atrayus O. Goode, President and CEO
Sontee Dean, Manager of Youth Advocacy and Community Engagement

Reach out with questions or feedback!

For more information about the development of the Mentoring Map and the Durham Youth Mentoring Alliance, contact Lara Khalil at Lara.Khalil@durhamnc.gov or Sontee Dean at sdean@youthmentoringcollaborative.org

Our Guiding Principles

Learn more about how YMC conducts our work through the lens of racial equity.

CRITICAL MENTORING

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