GET INVOLVED AND BECOME A MYSTICS MENTOR

The Mystics Mentor program, started in 2022 in association with MENTOR MD|DC, is a match-making service between Washington Mystics fanbase and 9 local mentoring partners in need of mentors and support to provide role models, training, and professional development to make connections with young people in our community. 1 in 3 young people could benefit from an influential adult mentor. Take the first step to closing the mentoring gap by learning more about each of our 9 Mystics Mentoring Partners.


BEST Kids

BEST Kids is a nonprofit mentoring organization that empowers youth in foster care to build better futures, one child at a time.

BEST Kids is guided by the belief that all children are talented. Through their one-on-one volunteer mentoring, extensive training, staff support and experiential-learning-based Peer Groups, they encourage youth to discover and develop their unique skills and abilities. Beginning with children as young as six and continuing, as needed, until adulthood, BEST Kids works to enable youth to develop a positive sense of self, to acquire teamwork.

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Spark The Journey

Since 1993, Spark The Journey has provided one-to-one mentoring and college and career success programming to low-income students in the Washington D.C. – area.

Spark The Journey is a one-to-one mentoring organization that connects low-income Washington, DC students with a mentor to support their college and career aspirations. Their goal is to equip these students who fall within the academic middle of their peers with the best skills and experiences to attain upward economic mobility by mentoring them to and through college or through their journey of exploring alternative career paths.

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Collegiate Directions

CDI works with Scholars in college and beyond to focus on career coaching and access to workforce opportunities through experiential learning and connects Scholars with accomplished professionals in their chosen fields.

Collegiate Directions, Inc., founded in 2005, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to closing the education, achievement, and opportunity gap for low-income, primarily first-generation-to-college students. In their Scholars Program they provide comprehensive college counseling, targeted tutoring, test preparation, study skills, leadership training, and ongoing support, starting in 10th grade and continuing through successful college graduation. As a part of their School Support Program, CDI extends their work to high school college advising offices through tailored consulting focused on helping school counselors and staff improve college advising and supporting students to find their best-fit college. Their Career Mentoring Initiative focuses on career coaching and access to workforce opportunities through experiential learning and connects Scholars with accomplished professionals in their chosen fields.

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Community Bridges

Community Bridges empowers girls from diverse backgrounds to become exceptional students, positive leaders, and healthy young women.

Community Bridges’s integrated 4th through 12th grade after- and out-of-school Girls Program supports the growth of young women by helping them understand their potential and life choices, learn creative strategies to become leaders, and break their family’s cycle of poverty using education as a vehicle. They further extend the impact for CB girls by wrapping their own efforts with mentoring and programs to provide resources and support for their families.

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DC Tutoring & Mentoring Initiative

Our goal, while ambitious, is far from impossible. There are more than 6 million adults in the DC Metro area, and if we all commit just an hour or two a week, every student will have the academic support they need. You have the chance to improve a child’s future, so what are you waiting for?

The idea is simple: Provide a tutor or mentor for the more than 60,000 students reading below grade level or in need of extra academic or non-academic support in the District of Columbia. Add in extra classroom and after-school support and extra mentoring or support for other family members and we could transform educational outcomes in the city, develop our workforce, end intergenerational poverty, and create a vibrant, welcoming and safe city for all people. In short, this is the key to both transforming educational outcomes AND the civic life or culture of the city.

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Generation Hope

To ensure all student parents have the opportunities to succeed and experience economic mobility, Generation Hope engages education and policy partners to drive systemic change and provides direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming.

To ensure all student parents have the opportunities to succeed and experience economic mobility, Generation Hope engages education and policy partners to drive systemic change and provides direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming.

Fewer than 2% of teen mothers earn a college degree before age 30, and more than half of all parenting college students leave school without a degree. Generation Hope is committed to changing these statistics one family and one system at a time.

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Kid Power Inc.

Kid Power, Inc. inspires youth leadership by promoting academic advancement, physical and emotional wellness, and positive civic engagement in underserved communities throughout the District of Columbia.

Kid Power is the only nonprofit expanded learning program offering a three-pronged approach to helping underserved DC students grow and become engaged leaders in their communities. Each year, Kid Power helps hundreds of youth succeed academically, empowers them to become engaged leaders and responsible citizens, and fosters healthy living through school gardens. Kid Power students work every day to build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient District.

Kid Power takes a strengths-based approach to all of their programs, which they hope gives our youth confidence to forge their own path.  As a result, Kid Power uses the term protégé as they move away from a deficit-based mentorship model and towards a model where our youth understand they have power, agency, and responsibility.

Kid Power’s mentoring program (Mentors, Inc. @ Kid Power) supports DC public and charter school students in grades 8-12. Their team trains and matches community mentors to students to support high school graduation rates and social-emotional growth. This program follows national best practices and includes career site visits, college tours, and enrichment activities. Kid Power protégés receive face-to-face contact each month, phone calls with their mentors, and support from the Kid Power staff to document and encourage monthly progress.
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Life Pieces To Masterpieces

Life Pieces To Masterpieces uses artistic expression and our Human Development System to develop character, unlock potential, and prepare African American boys and young men to transform their lives and community.

Who Life Pieces to Masterpieces is will always be, first and foremost, the remarkable boys and young men they serve. Life Pieces To Masterpieces is uniquely successful in bringing their Apprentices’ highest good and most authentic selves to the forefront through our intentional environment of love, security, and expression. Who they are lies in their commitment to our Human Development System and their+ expectation that all who touch their mission – apprentices, teachers, mentors, staff, volunteers, and community partners – will commit to their own journey of personal growth and character development. This has led to a powerful organizational culture and an exceptional team that embraces vulnerability, shared humanity, and commitment to social justice.

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Raising A Village

Raising A Village Foundation’s Mission is to build safe, healthy and whole communities by increasing access to education, health and wellness, and the arts in underserved areas.

Raising A Village Foundation began as the vision of Jaleesa Hall, who started the college initiative Driven Student Organization on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. Driven Student Organization launched in 2010 as a campus-chartered organization that is committed to providing college students with high standard scholastic achievement opportunities, community engagement, and leadership skills. Serving an audience of 10,000 college students, Driven made tremendous strides in the community by implementing monthly topical symposiums, the Truth or Dare AIDS and HIV Awareness Campaign, and the Driven 2 Succeed program at the Atlanta Children’s Shelter. Due to the success of Driven, in 2017, Ms. Hall expanded the student organization and its initiatives through the founding of Raising A Village Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Driven Student Organization is still on the campus of Clark Atlanta University and expanding its initiatives and impact not only on the campus of Clark Atlanta University but under the direction of Raising A Village Foundation. Since its incorporation in Washington D.C. in 2017, Raising A Village Foundation has served over 500 middle and high school students through the Driven 2 Succeed Program, and created corporate and government partnerships including Communities in Schools Nation’s Capital, Urban Alliance, The American Experience Foundation, The Pen Faulkner Foundation, and the Dept of Education’s Federal Work Study Program.

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