Business and education leaders came together Tuesday to encourage mentoring in the region's schools.
The Greater Richmond Chamber, in partnership with eight local school divisions and other organizations, launched the January Mentor Month initiative to rally community members and businesses to become involved in a child's education.
S. Buford Scott, chairman of Richmond-based brokerage firm Scott & Stringfellow, said mentoring is a win-win situation for everybody involved.
"If we can start something that can spread throughout our community into the counties, it will be a huge victory," Scott said during a news conference at the Scott House on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.
January is National Mentoring Month, and local advocates wanted to take advantage of that designation to make a major push this month to recruit mentors and volunteers for the schools.
Beverly J. Warren, VCU provost, said mentors can come from all walks of life.
"It takes us all to make a difference in a young person's life," she said.
Katherine Busser, Capital One's executive vice president for bank operations, drew a parallel to "The Wizard of Oz" and said all a person needs to mentor is "a heart, a brain and a little bit of courage to meet kids on their ground."
"(Children) need someone to believe in them and remind them of the goodness, smartness and richness they have to offer," Busser said.
Richmond Public Schools, one of the school divisions involved in the initiative, last year launched a major program — Middle School Renaissance — to boost academic performance and ultimately increase the number of students who graduate from high school.
A major component of that plan is mentoring. In just a few months, 400 mentors from area businesses have volunteered their time in the schools working with students.
Richmond schools Superintendent Yvonne W. Brandon said mentoring has been a positive for students and research shows that students who are mentored are more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to give back to their community and less likely to exhibit negative behavior.
"We understand the difference that mentoring makes," Brandon said. "We like to say our work is doable, but it is not doable without the help of others. We know that."
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