Every week PITY mentors show up at middle schools, high schools and foster care facilities to give the troubled youth a community of mentors who listen, encourage and believe in them. 

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The community based mentoring approach give boys and girls a variety of role models who show up consistently, tell the truth about our struggles as adults, ask them what kind of man or woman they want to be, praise them for their gifts, support them when they screw up, and encourage them to become the adult they want to be.

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We are dedicated to providing this opportunity to every troubled youth in need.

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Mentoring program

You have the potential to change a young person’s life. 

Now, don’t be intimidated by the weight of that. Like I said, anyone can be a mentor — and you don’t have to be as wise or pithy as the Buddha to change a life.

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It will get you to stop thinking about yourself all the time. 

Let’s face it: so much of people’s mental energies is spent on ourselves — our hopes, our fears, our anxieties, our next Big Plan, our goals for the future. Having a mentee — who indeed has his or her own hopes and fears and plans — forces us to occasionally stop thinking about ourselves and transcend our egotism, not just a few times a year but on a consistent basis.

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It will help you stay hip and keep up with the times.

There’s nothing like having a young person in your life to keep you from turning into an old fogey.

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You are helping build a better, more stable society.

This isn’t just fluff. One-to-one mentoring actually helps create happier, more stable adults, which helps society at large. 

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You may end up with more than just a mentee but a new member of your family. 

Ultimately, mentoring isn’t a one-way process. It’s a two-way street. It has the potential to change — indeed, to radically transform — not just one life, but two. It’s fun, it’s an adventure, you’ll learn a lot about yourself, you’ll have stories to last a lifetime. You may end up with a new member of your family. And its ripple effects have the potential to change the world. Perhaps even to save it.

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The life you end up changing could be your own. 

Sure, it’s a bit of a cliché. But it doesn’t make it any less true. Your decision to become a mentor will lead to a series of events and opportunities you can’t possibly forsee, to experiences and challenges and rewards you can’t anticipate—but all of them will force you to learn and evolve and, perhaps even despite yourself, become a better human being.