Mentoring Collaborative Enters New Stage

Tusk Consulting guided members of the Mentoring Collaborative toward their next stage of development with a recent training session. The Collaborative, launched with funding from the Meyer Memorial Trust (MMT), brings together mission-related organizations which focus on mentoring youth. Members of the inaugural steering committee are developing policies and organizational cultures to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Aligned with one of MMT’s primary values, the Mentoring Collaborative, facilitated by Family of Friends Mentoring, has partnered with nine mentoring organizations, including MIKE Program, to develop trusted relationships for building a network of shared goals within the Portland-Gresham youth mentoring communities.

Tusk Consultants Heather Heater and Stephanie Farnum constructed capacity-building scenarios to engage members during the training. Tusk, which specializes in complex systems changes, is working with the Collaborative to help members navigate ways to organize and implement diversity, equity and inclusion into overall plans and practices that each of the member organizations can utilize in creating a regional resource for mentoring youth.

Representatives from each of the nine Collaborative organizations, including MIKE, Family of Friends Mentoring, Education Northwest, Holla Mentors, Self Enhancement Inc., Urban Nature Partners PDX, Big Brother Big Sisters Northwest, and Joy RX.