About the NCME
"My mentor is very supportive and is helping me to get over my fears. (My mentor) knows and understands what I am going through because he is blind. My mentor has taught me, I am Ben and I am unique."
- Benjamin, mentee from Nebraska
Mission
The mission of the National Center for Mentoring Excellence (NCME) is to link blind and low vision young adults, ages sixteen to twenty-six, with successful blind and low vision mentors for the purpose of increasing knowledge and participation in the vocational rehabilitation process with a resulting outcome of increased post-secondary academic success, high-quality employment, and community integration.
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"Mentoring has been the cornerstone of the NFB since the beginning. It is a part of everything we do in the Federation, something that we can do better than anyone else in the blindness field." - Mark Riccobono, Director of Education |
History
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Jernigan Institute has created the National Center for Mentoring Excellence (NCME) for youth and young adults who are blind and low vision. The NFB Jernigan Institute received a Demonstration Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration to establish the National Center for Mentoring Excellence in October 2004. This five-year research project will demonstrate what we in the National Federation of the Blind have known for decades—by connecting blind youth and young adults with successful adult blind mentors and role models, success for future generations is guaranteed.
The first year of the project was spent developing materials, hiring staff, and planning for the rollout of the mentoring programs in two demonstration states, Louisiana and Nebraska. A state coordinator was identified in each state with the primary responsibility of recruiting, screening, matching, and supporting the mentoring pairs. A target of twenty blind and low vision youth and young adults, ages sixteen to twenty-six, from each state were recruited and screened to participate in the project.
At the beginning of the second year of the project, these young adults were matched with blind mentors who completed a screening process to make certain each possesses the right attitudes and skills necessary to serve as an appropriate mentor. Each mentoring pair commits to a two-year mentoring relationship that includes participating in monthly face-to-face contact and weekly telephone calls and e-mails. Mentoring activities are scheduled that help to facilitate the mentoring relationship while serving as an opportunity for the youth to connect with other blind young adults.
Beginning in year three of the project, the initial demonstration states will match a second group of mentoring pairs for a two-year commitment. During the fourth and fifth years of the project, this model mentoring program will be rolled out into additional replication states: Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and Utah. Relationships have been established so that the state affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind in the identified states will work closely with their state agency for the blind and the Jernigan Institute to formalize mentoring and develop model mentoring programs. State coordinators in each of the replications states have been identified and will begin actively recruiting in the spring of 2007. Under this grant project, the replication states will continue working with their mentoring pairs through September 2009.
Contact us today!
If you have any questions about the NCME, contact:
Treva E. Olivero
Coordinator, Mentoring and Outreach Projects
Jernigan Institute
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314, ext. 2295
(410) 659-5129 (fax)
