MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is proud to announce Stamford’s Lana Gifas as one of 15 Fellows selected as part of MENTOR’s 2018 National Mentoring Summit Fellowship Program.

Gifas, Executive Director of Women’s Mentoring Network, Inc., has been awarded admission and a travel stipend to attend MENTOR’s eighth annual National Mentoring Summit in Washington, D.C., taking place January 24-26. The Summit is the only national convening of youth mentoring practitioners, researchers, philanthropic partners and leaders, and provides attendees with an opportunity to engage in skill building, peer learning, advocacy, and networking.

Every year since the Summit’s founding, MENTOR has received requests from mentoring practitioners who want to attend, but given their organization’s limited budget and professional development opportunities, are in need of financial assistance. In response to these requests and with the generous founding sponsorship from AT&T, MENTOR launched the Summit Fellowship Program in 2017 to provide a select number of scholarships to leaders from mentoring programs operating with a budget of $150,000 or less. This year, additional support was provided by Douglas Chamberlain of Appleton Partners, Lori & John Grayson, Angus Worthing & Margaret Taylor, JPMorgan Chase & Co., the Ross Stores Foundation, and an anonymous donor to expand the program. As a result, this year 15 Fellows will attend the 2018 National Mentoring Summit through the Summit Fellowship Program.

The Fellows were selected based on their leadership-potential and experience, eagerness to build their professional skills and networks, demonstrated financial need, and personal commitment to helping young people succeed. Gifas is one of these dedicated practitioners selected for her commitment to making a difference for young people in her community. As part of this program, Gifas will not only be able to participate in the general Summit programming, she will also be on hand helping to facilitate two exclusive funder events and have the opportunity to participate in two post-Summit cohort learning webinars.

Women’s Mentoring Network promotes economic security, economic mobility and asset building through professional development, education and employment services for low-income women and their families. “At the National Mentoring Summit, I am most excited for the opportunity to meet with individuals from other organizations and share knowledge and experiences that I can then apply to making my organization a success,” Gifas said.

About MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership

MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership is the unifying champion for quality youth mentoring in the United States. MENTOR’s mission is to close the “mentoring gap” and ensure our nation’s young people have the support they need through quality mentoring relationships to succeed at home, school, and ultimately, work. To achieve this, MENTOR collaborates with its Affiliates and works to drive the investment of time and money into high impact mentoring programs and advance quality mentoring through the development and delivery of standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools.  Connect with MENTOR on Twitter and Facebook.