The Milwaukee Bucks, City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) have officially launched a first-of-its-kind partnership – MENTOR Greater Milwaukee – to provide support to mentor organizations and programs across the city and to help meet the demand for quality mentors in Milwaukee.

MENTOR Greater Milwaukee (MGM) is the 25th affiliate of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, a national organization that operates in collaboration with local affiliates to serve the mentoring field and young people across the country. MGM is the first of the 25 affiliates to have an NBA team, the city it’s based in and the primary school district in the state, partnered together.

"Mentoring is of the utmost importance to the entire Bucks organization," Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv Forum President Peter Feigin said. "We aim to use our platform to engage our corporate and community partners to join in the mentoring movement and to make a lasting impact across Milwaukee and Wisconsin. We look forward to seeing what MGM can accomplish in the near and long-term future."

MGM will provide the necessary infrastructure to improve the quality of mentoring programs across Milwaukee by recruiting and supporting more mentors, fostering new collaborations, influencing public policy, increasing philanthropic support for mentoring and by collecting data to describe the impact of mentoring and identifying gaps in the range of services needed. MGM has set an initial goal of generating 1,000 new mentors in Milwaukee by the end of 2020.

Alicia Moore, a Milwaukee native and Marquette University graduate who has worked in non-profit organizations for more than 10 years, has been named the Executive Director of MGM and will spearhead these efforts.

"The City of Milwaukee is pleased to announce MENTOR Greater Milwaukee, a partnership with the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Public Schools, which will work to increase the number of mentors to benefit our young people," said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. "Mentorship is an important way to connect our youth with someone who can guide them, keep them engaged and invest in their futures."

"We have the power to change someone’s trajectory simply by pouring positivity into their lives," said Milwaukee Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton. "This is why I believe mentoring is powerful, and this power should be at the center of our efforts to create a better Milwaukee."

"Mentors not only serve as role models, but they help students feel valued and empowered," said MPS Superintendent Dr. Keith P. Posley. "We look forward to engaging with mentors across the city who will support our students now and look to them as leaders in the decades to come."

Since 2014, mentoring has been a focus of the NBA thanks to former President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The NBA partnered with MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership in late 2014 and made a commitment to help recruit 25,000 new mentors over five years. The NBA hit that mark in 18 months and since has doubled its overall commitment to 50,000 new mentors.

For more information on MENTOR Greater Milwaukee, or to find out how to get involved as a mentor, visit milwaukeementor.com.