Mentor Foundation USA | Non-profit Client Spotlight

It’s an honor to highlight one of our non-profit accounting clients who is making a huge positive impact on the world. Mentor Foundation USA is a non-profit organization working to empower young people to live healthy productive lives, free from substance abuse. Mentors primary focus is to serve students in the Greater Washington Area.

Youth and young adults are especially vulnerable to developing substance use disorders, which carry the potential for life altering consequences. Roughly 90% of alcohol and drug problems begin in adolescence and youth who do not use alcohol, nicotine or marijuana before the age of 21 are far less likely to start drug use after that age. Mentor uses innovative, evidence-based intervention approaches to prevent youth substance abuse and promote health and wellbeing.

History

Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden established Mentor International in 1994 in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Since then, it has grown to provide support to youth in over 80 countries reaching more than six million children.

Mentor International, together with Mentor Foundation USA and the other Mentor organizations around the world, is the leading international not-for-profit network empowering youth and preventing substance abuse. Mentor is now represented in the USA, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the UK, and Denmark, and it has a regional office in Lebanon serving 22 Arab countries.

Current Initiatives

Mentor and George Washington University have jointly piloted a new peer-to-peer prevention program called “Living the Example” (LTE). The program is showing promising results in terms of shifts in attitudes toward drugs and the intent to use. This fall, thanks to a partnership with the Anne Arundel County Department of Health and Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Mentor will implement the LTE program in four Maryland high schools. 

On November 28, 2018 H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden will join Mentor Foundation USA for an “In Light of Youth” Benefit Dinner hosted by Her Excellency Karin Olofsdotter, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States, at the Embassy of Sweden.

This intimate dinner will bring together influencers from business and government from around the world—all compassionate about the health and well-being of our youth. The purpose for this dinner is to raise awareness around the importance of positive youth development and drug prevention, on both a local and global level.