Dear friends:

The past year marked the culmination of a five year strategic plan, one that radically changed the ways we approach our work. Over that time, we changed our program structure and roles to do a better job of supporting students and teachers, and to help mentors understand the impact they make. We worked hard to ensure that our programs fight the opportunity and achievement gaps, and that we are sending our mentors and resources to the schools that are often overlooked.

We’re proud to say that in School Year 2018-2019, we saw promising results from that work. Our total mentoring matches grew by 10%. In the neighborhoods we specifically identified a need for our programs — Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan — we saw 29% growth since 2017-2018. Matches in those key neighborhoods now make up almost a third of our reach!

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This growth is worth celebrating, because according to the Action for Boston Children report, “~80% of students in downtown Boston and Charlestown attend high-quality schools, compared with only ~5% of students in Mattapan,” emphasizing the need for resources like Boston Partners in key neighborhoods of the city. 

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So where do we go from here? For 2019-2020 we’ve kicked off a new strategic plan, one that focuses on building on these successes while still innovating and moving us toward the future. The new plan has a strong focus on how we tell our story better, so that we can reach more potential mentors and teachers in order to meet the need in our city for more engaged, caring citizens to work with our youth. We're anticipating that this year will be filled with some exciting changes that we can't wait to share with you. Stay tuned!

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Thank you for your continued support — we could not do this work without you!