4c Coalition

SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT tm
Susan Taylor leads national campaign to recruit mentors for vulnerable youth.
SEATTLE, WA – Wednesday, March 26, Susan Taylor, editor-emeritus of Essence magazine, launched SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT (SCMM). SCMM is part of the NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENTtm (NCMM), a mentor recruitment initiative for all Americans to come together with community leaders and mentoring stakeholders to rally prospective mentors for the futures of our youth.
SCMM is a call to action for every capable and willing adult to step up to the challenge
to create a lasting positive impact on the lives of vulnerable youth.
“The negative forces claiming our children are more powerful at this moment than our communities’ and country’s effort to secure them,” states Susan Taylor.
NCMM is geared toward becoming part of the solution to encourage high achievement for young people who are in dire need of positive role models.
SCMM is one of the 22 launches across the United States to recruit volunteer mentors
to help young people achieve their full potential. The 4C Coalition, lead agency for this campaign, is in partnership with several local affiliates: CASA, DSHS, M. L. King County Labor Unions, Seattle Urban League, Washington State Mentors, and The Links Inc. Community leaders supporting the effort include Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, Councilman Larry Gossett, Rev. Steve E. Baber, other clergy, and mentoring programs.
SCMM is promoting the NCMM Six Steps to creating a Local Cares Circle: 1) Form steering committees of devoted people in local communities. 2) Set up Cares Circle infrastructures. 3) Develop work plans. 4) Form partnerships with existing mentoring organizations. 5) Launch the initiative. 6) Host mentor recruitment rallies.

The NCMM, spearheaded by Susan Taylor, is in partnership with YWCA; MENTOR/ National Mentoring Partnership; Thomas Dortch, founder of 100 Black Men of America, Inc.; Children’s Defense Fund; Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; Girl Scouts of the USA; the United Negro College Fund; National Baptist Conventions; Unions; the Legal Defense Fund; NAACP; Operation Hope; MAD DADS, Inc.; and the National Institute for Literacy. For more information about the NCMM, see http://www.essence.com/essence/emf/essencecares/about.html

SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT Hosts Mentor Recruitment Rally

On July 5, 2008, SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT will host its first Mentor Recruitment Rally at the Skyway United Methodist Church. Susan Taylor, founder of NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT, will return to Seattle to help kick off this historic first. The goal is to recruit prospective mentors for youth ages 6-18 at high risk of forfeiting their futures to school failure and dropping out, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, alcohol and drugs, gang involvement, violence, incapacitating injury or death, and civil death by incarceration.
The rally offers prospective mentors an opportunity to meet representatives of several mentoring organizations in King County to learn about their programs and the youth they serve. Representatives can walk prospective mentors through the application process and schedule mentor training on the spot to meet the urgent need for mentors.
Susan Taylor launched the SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT this year in March. The Seattle movement joins the growing number of NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT branches forming coast to coast. The mission of NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT is to create a highly visible and effective national mentoring campaign targeting our most vulnerable youth, particularly in the African-American community.
Primary goals at the national level include: Mobilizing millions of African-American men and women who are committed to mentoring young people; communicating to young people in crisis that they are loved and valued, and the Black community is committed to helping them; increasing high school graduation rates among Black students; and ending the violence and disproportionate incarceration of Black youth.
The Clergy, Community, Children/Youth Coalition (4C) is serving as lead agency for the SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT at Susan Taylor’s request. The 4C Coalition Mentoring Program specializes in training mentors for youth caught in juvenile justice system. Many of the youth participate in the King County Drug Court Program. The 4C Mentoring Program is designed to prevent youth on probation from going deeper into the justice system and to reclaim youth who have crossed the line into incarceration. Historically, these youth have fallen out of view as a “lost cause.”
The Skyway United Methodist Church, also headquarters for the 4C Coalition, is a
real-world symbol of hope for this rally. It’s situated across the street from an area where prospective mentees hang out during school hours and nights finding approval, attention, family, and employment among drug dealers and gangs. These highly vulnerable kids skate close to the edge of high-chance opportunity to be matched with
a mentor that could change their lives forever. You could be that mentor.
To learn more about the NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT, visit http://www.essence.com/essence/emf/essencecares/about.html. To learn more about the SEATTLE CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT, visit http://www.unitedway.org
To get directions to the Skyway United Methodist Church, click here. In the Search box enter 11800 Renton Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98178.