About us

Los Angeles CARES is an affiliate of the National CARES Mentoring Movement (NCMM). The NCMM's mission is to create a highly visible and effective national mentoring campaign targeting the Black community. The specific goals of the Los Angeles CARES Mentoring Movement are to bring guidance to the lives of youngsters by pairing them with organizations that offer mentoring services and programs and to significantly increase the pool of caring Black mentors.

The Los Angeles CARES Mentoring Movement is a call to action to every able and caring Black adult to help end the crisis in our community by mentoring our young people who are at risk and by recruiting other caring adults to mentor. NCMM does not offer mentoring services; instead, we encourage local leaders to raise awareness of the need and benefits of mentoring, as well as recruit mentors for organizations that provide mentoring and other youth-support services.

We target the needs of Black youngsters, who are greatly overrepresented on long waiting lists for mentors. Unfortunately, Black adult mentors are grossly underrepresented as volunteers for the youngsters in the Black community. NCMM works to fill the pipelines of local organizations with caring Black men and women.

Due to the unfortunate under-representation of Black adults who volunteer as mentors for the youth in their communities, Black youth are grossly overrepresented on long waiting lists for mentors. NCMM targets the needs of these youth and works to fill the pipelines of local organizations with caring men and women.

NCMM is devoted to closing the huge gap between the relatively few Black adult mentors and the millions of vulnerable Black children on mentoring organizations' waiting lists throughout the nation. It is imperative that we raise awareness of the critical need for mentors and role models among Black adults.

We are dedicated to recruiting and connecting mentors with local youth-serving organizations to help guide our struggling children to academic and social success. Research proves that mentoring is a low-cost, high-results solution to a deepening crisis. Mentoring has the power to transform even the most challenged children’s lives.