"One of the most important things you can do is impact a child's life in a positive way."

-Tamara Davis, Personnel and Finance Supervisor, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and mentor with the Be A 6th Grade Mentor Program

The Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative is the City of Pittsburgh’s first-ever employee volunteer program.  Full-time City employees are eligible to serve as mentors to Pittsburgh Public School students during the work week through one of two local mentoring opportunities: the United Way of Allegheny County’s Be A 6th Grade Mentor Program and Reading is Fundamental Pittsburgh’s Everybody Wins! program, an affiliate of Everybody Wins! USA.

In March 2011, Mayor Ravenstahl announced that through the Mayor's Mentoring Initiative, City employees are offered leave time to serve as mentors to Pittsburgh Public School students during the work week.  In the 2011-2012 school year, over 50 City employees dedicated time each week to mentor local middle school students in 8 schools across the City through the United Way of Allegheny County’s Be A 6th Grade Mentor Program.

City employees can now choose to mentor with either the  Be a 6^th Grade Mentor program or Reading is Fundamental Pittsburgh’s Everybody Wins! program- an opportunity for volunteers to spend one lunch hour each week reading with an elementary school student.  According to the National Institute of Education, reading aloud with a child is the most important activity you can do to help them learn to read. 

The Be A 6th Grade Mentor Program is the largest mentoring project in the region's history, initiated by the leadership of the Youth Futures Commission and developed through the collaboration of United Way of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Reading is Fundamental Pittsburgh's Everybody Wins! program is an affiliate of Everybody Wins! USA, a national literacy and mentoring organization that strives to build literacy skills and a love of reading among elementary school students.  This lunchtime literacy and mentoring program pairs elementary school students with volunteers to share conversation and good books for one hour a week.

If you are a City employee interested in serving through either of these programs, please complete the Mayor's Mentoring Initiative application. If you are not a City employee and are interested in serving as a mentor, please check out the Be A 6th Grade Mentor Program website and the Reading is Fundamental Pittsburgh website for more information.

If you have any questions, please call 412-255-2280 or email servepgh@pittsburghpa.gov.

Partners

Be a 6th Grade Mentor

United Way of Allegheny County

The Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Public Schools

Youth Futures Commission

Reading is Fundamental Pittsburgh

Everybody Wins! USA