About Greenville Mentoring Collaborative

Authentic relationships have transformative power.

By cultivating a thriving state of mentoring in Greenville County, we will create a better future for youth and for our community as a whole.

Our Mission

Greenville Mentoring Collaborative supports Greenville County mentoring organizations through advocacy, capacity building, and mentor recruitment.

Our Vision

A thriving state of mentoring in Greenville, South Carolina

Our Strategic Direction

Greenville’s mentoring gap is not just a gap in youth to adult relationships; it’s a gap in opportunity, in personal growth, and in the potential of our youth. By cultivating a thriving state of mentoring in Greenville County, we will create a better future for youth and for our community as a whole.

Advocacy

Build awareness of the current state of youth mentoring and the return on investing in formal youth mentoring.

Capacity Building

Secure resources to increase the capacity of partners to provide high quality, accessible mentoring programs.

Mentor Recruitment

Support the efforts of partners to recruit, train and support mentors.

Mentoring Resources

We work to increase quality mentoring experiences for all youth.

Discover Our History

Filling gaps in community capacity through collaboration & service

Discover Our History

Filling gaps in community capacity through collaboration & service

Greenville Mentoring Collaborative grew out of a critical need to find mentors to serve the over 300 youth coming out of Greenville’s juvenile detention center each year. The Greenville County Juvenile Detention Facility Coordinator, Mark Calligaris, had difficulty finding organizations who were mentoring youth and more specifically organizations that were willing to mentor incarcerated youth. Barriers included limited program enrollment periods, funding instability, and mentor attrition.

In March 2018, Mark began convening meetings with county mentoring programs to get a better understanding of available resources and to devise a plan to expand and improve mentoring efforts in Greenville. The initiative quickly generated interest and by October 2018, over 40 organizations, including Greenville County Schools, Goodwill GoodGuides, Mentor Upstate, Phoenix Center, and United Way of Greenville were devoting time, space, and resources to respond to the need for more mentors and greater support for mentoring programs.

Today the collaborative consists of over a dozen mentoring program partners, and representatives from law enforcement, social services, education, and the business sectors