Mentorship's Effect on Community

In her talk about mentoring, Brit Fitzpatrick explains how we can leverage mentorship to reshape our communities. The entrepreneur is concerned about the state of children today and particularly poverty's effect on education, substance abuse, mental health and violence. She feels that mentoring provides a proven strategy that increases successful outcomes in at-risk youth while also giving us the opportunity to be a part of the solution.

Noting benefits like kids being less likely to use drugs and alcohol, skip school and have better relationships, the talk about mentoring explains that formal mentoring relationships should be defined by mutual respect, clear expectations, shared values and reciprocity. Given the average mentorship match only lasts a few months, but the most effective last a year or longer, the speaker felt compelled to launch a startup called Mentor Me to address the issue.