[#SpecMagShorts] Atrayus Goode & MENTOR NC: Linking National & Local Mentoring Groups
Chapel Hill, NC – Established in 2016, MENTOR North Carolina is a statewide affiliate of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership. In this episode of #SpecMagShorts, the inaugural President & CEO of MENTOR North Carolina Atrayus Goode talks about the organization’s history, its work, and the Duke Energy Foundation Social Justice & Racial Equity Grant the organization recently received. Forty organizations across the state of North Carolina received $25,000 Duke Energy Foundation grants each to reduce disparate outcomes, support training, policy and criminal justice reform, and civic engagement.
WATCH #SpecMagNC: ATRAYUS GOODE (Mentor NC)
For more than 25 years, MENTOR has served the mentoring field by providing a public voice; developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide; and promoting quality for mentoring through evidence-based standards, innovative research, and essential tools. MENTOR has developed and supports a national network of Affiliates that are non-partisan, public-private organizations that galvanize local or statewide mentoring movements.
As a local Affiliate, MENTOR North Carolina is dedicated to increasing the number of youth in quality mentoring relationships across North Carolina while working to address the systemic barriers that young people face on a daily basis. This includes providing the leadership and infrastructure necessary to support the expansion of quality mentoring relationships across North Carolina and serving as a clearinghouse for training, resources, public awareness, and advocacy, providing the critical link between MENTOR’s national efforts and local organizations and programs that foster and support quality mentoring relationships.
To learn more about MENTOR North Carolina, visit www.mentornc.org.
Five Durham-area grant recipients will discuss the grant and how it will make a difference in the communities they serve when they appear as guests on Spectacular Magazine’s web-series, “#SpecMagShorts.”
“I am excited that Knox Studios, NC Institute for Minority Economic Development, Villages of Wisdom, Mentor NC, and Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People were among the grant recipients and will be supported in their work to break down barriers, spur meaningful dialogue and provide resources and opportunity to the Black community,” says Indira Everett, District Manager at Duke Energy.
The $1 million in grants and expanded internal programs build upon Duke Energy’s past efforts to support and encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion within the company and the communities we serve.
Everett goes on to say, “This is only a start. I, along with other Duke Energy employees, will continue to engage with Durham-based and statewide organizations and leaders to be a part of the long-term solution to the social justice issues our communities face. I am proud to work for a company that makes social justice and racial equity a priority and is taking action to end systemic racism.”
For more information about the Duke Energy Foundation Social Justice & Racial Equity Grant, visit www.duke-energy.com.