; Whereas research has found that young people facing risk of not completing high school but who had a mentor were, compared with their peers, more likely to enroll in college, to participate regularly in sports or extracurricular activities, to hold a leadership position in a club or sports team, and to volunteer regularly, and less likely to start using drugs; Whereas mentoring has long been a staple of juvenile justice and violence prevention efforts and can offer comprehensive support to youth at risk for committing violence or victimization, as mentoring can address many risk factors at once; Whereas mentoring relationships for youth facing risk, such as foster youth, can have a positive impact on a wide range of factors, including mental health, educational functioning and attainment, peer relationships, employment, and housing stability; Whereas mentoring programs have been found to have a meaningful positive impact on mental health symptoms across a variety of outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms, interpersonal relationships, and reducing parental stress; Whereas mentoring is an innovative, evidence-based practice and, uniquely, is both a prevention and intervention strategy that can support young people of all demographics and backgrounds in all aspects of their lives; Whereas each of the benefits of mentors described in this preamble serves to link youth to economic and social opportunity while also strengthening communities in the United States; Whereas, despite the benefits of mentoring, 1 out of every 3 young persons is growing up without a mentor, which means a third of the youth of the United States are growing up without someone outside of the home to offer real life guidance and support; and Whereas this mentoring gap demonstrates the need for collaboration between the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to increase resources for relationship-centric supports for youth in communities, schools, and workplaces: Now, therefore, be it