Lawrence, MA - Ten nonprofits in Greater Lawrence have joined forces to create The Lawrence Mentoring Consortium (LMC), a collaboration to increase and improve youth mentoring services in the Lawrence community. The Consortium is being launched in January, the beginning of National Mentoring Month. Together, the 10 organizations that form the Consortium support over 1,000 youth and adult mentor matches.

Going forward, The Consortium will serve as an information clearing house for all mentoring activities in Lawrence. "Each mentoring program in the city caters to a specific age group and has specific goals and objectives" said Leah Feroce, Big Friends Little Friends Program Coordinator at Family Service, Inc. and Co-Chair of the Lawrence Mentoring Consortium, "And volunteer mentors will have a better experience and be more successful if they can find the program that best suits them. Our job is to help make the connection."

In addition to gathering and maintaining information on all Lawrence mentoring programs, the LMC will collect and share data on the benefits of mentoring to adults, youth and the community.

January is National Mentoring Month. Colin Powell is the spokesperson and this year’s theme is "Expand your universe, mentor a child". Last January over 500,000 individuals responded to the campaign by seeking information about local mentoring programs needing more volunteers.