Mentor Colorado is thrilled to bring the National Quality Mentoring System (NQMS) to Colorado 2017. Our partnership believes that this system for understanding, supporting and growing quality programs will be the crux of the mentoring movement in Colorado.
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Overview of Badging
As part of the QMS, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership awards the National Quality Mentoring System (NQMS) Badge to all agencies enrolled in the system. This approach is designed to encourage broad, inclusive, and efficient QMS adoption by state mentoring partnerships across the country. In addition, mentoring agencies in Colorado requested state specific badges to recognize agencies with high (Silver Partner) and extremely high (Gold Partner) alignment with existing mentoring research and evidence.
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QMS Honored Mentoring Agencies
For 45 years, the Buddy Program has been serving youth in the Roaring Fork Valley community. The Buddy Program runs four programs throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, including one-on-one mentoring, group/experiential mentoring, and financial literacy education. Pairs in our Community Program stay together for 4.6 years, more than twice that of national mentoring programs.
At Denver Kids, we believe that strong, supportive relationships have the power to help every student reach their fullest potential and graduate high school. It’s been the heart of our mission and the springboard of our strong outcomes since 1946. Denver Kids’ professional Educational Counselors and volunteer mentors work one-on-one with Denver Public Schools students facing adversity to keep them engaged, motivated, and on track to high school graduation.
FRIENDS FIRST is a non-profit organization established in 1993. We serve youth by educating and mentoring teens to make positive life choices and develop healthy relationships. Our unique peer mentoring model matches 7th-9th grade mentees with trained high school mentors. The programs are facilitated at schools, run weekly through the entire school year, and all best-practices in mentoring are modeled. The match of four mentees to one mentor maximizes the number of students who have mentors increasing impact exponentially.
The mission of Gunnison Valley Mentors is to promote the healthy growth of young people through one-to-one mentoring relationships and enrichment opportunities. Gunnison Valley Mentors works to empower youth in our community to make positive life choices that enable them to maximize their potential through the guidance and advocacy of caring, pro-social role models.
Minds Matter is transforming the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for success in college and beyond. The Denver chapter, founded in 2004, is the culmination of a grass-roots effort to level educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.
Save Our Youth is a youth development organization providing at-risk youth with educational, emotional, and spiritual skills for success through long-term, one-to-one mentoring relationships. Mentees benefit from Save Our Youth’s supplemental education programs that support youth in the areas of academic remediation, college preparation and career/future oriented planning.
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"QMS is a seriously thrilling opportunity for growth. Mentoring professionals already know the value of connection in transforming lives. QMS provides guidance for our efforts, our direction, and for skillful program execution to broaden the impact of intentional mentoring."
Tina McGuinness, Executive Director, Gunnison Valley Mentors
“The QMS process allowed us to take an in-depth look at the quality of our mentoring program. It can be difficult to gauge mentoring effectiveness at times, and through the processes and coaching provided by MENTOR: Colorado, we were able to identify areas of improvement and growth to better impact the students with whom we impact.”
Russel Dains, Program Director, Friends First
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