Partakers is Celebrating Our Mentor Community-Our Fall 2025 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

 We hope you are well and connecting with dear ones and community through these days.

As New Englanders, we have the opportunity to witness the glorious change of our seasons. And as our leaves take on the colors of fall, we are reminded of the beauty of transformation. At Partakers, the power of transformation is the center of our work...not just for our students but also for our extraordinary community of mentors.

This Fall, we are celebrating transformation and the community that makes that happen each and every day for our over 200 students in our College Behind Bars and PEP Reentry Programs.

We are welcoming wonderful new mentors to the Partakers Family and creating a strong infrastructure for engagement and communication between mentors as well as between mentors and students in our programs. Our great new team is hard at work to ensure that mentors have the skills and tools they need to support our students and gain deeper connections.

In the nearly 28 years since the founding of Partakers, the world has changed in extraordinary ways. The power of relationships, however, will never change, and the need for connection, understanding, empathy, and heart is greater than ever.

Like the new season, our work is truly transformative. Just this past week, I attended the Boston College graduation at MCI Shirley and celebrated with mentors, students and their families as we listened to the extraordinary valedictorian speech of a Partakers' graduate. We also had the opportunity to hear the supportive and inspiring words of State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Senate Chair of the Joint-Committee of The Criminal Justice Reform Caucus as well as Max Kenner, Founder and Executive Director of the Bard Prison Initiative. In August, we celebrated the graduation of our 13th PEP Reentry Cohort. This month, a new PEP cohort begins their journey of learning, discovery, and connection.

Witnessing the achievements of our College Behind Bars and PEP Reentry graduates lights our way forward and sparks our determination to reach and support as many folks and communities impacted by incarceration as possible. Within the uncertainty of this moment we know our work matters more than ever. Partakers is focused on expanding our unique relational based programming, working each day to build on our success and to ensure that we are supporting real change in very real ways...one amazing mentor-student relationship at a time.

We could not be prouder of our students and mentors, or of the bridges we are building to foster long-term relationships and strong, committed communities.

As one of our long-time mentors reminds us:

"So many people will say this experience has changed my life...this program helps

their hearts to grow bigger"

At Partakers, it is those hearts that matter most. We hope you will join us on November 16th for a Celebration of Our Mentor Community. This event is also a 'Friend-Raiser". We invite you to bring friends with you to help them discover the "Power of Partakers Mentoring." We look forward to having you celebrate with us!

 Yes, we have been at this for nearly 28 years, but we recognize as the world moves rapidly forward, we need to be prepared to meet the many challenges ahead.

What will always remain true, and at the core of all we strive to do at Partakers, is that Mentors Matter! Long-term Community Engagement Matters! and the Power of Lives Transformed Matters!

We simply could not do this vital work without your friendship and support.

 Thank you for always being here for us! We hope to see you on November 16th.

Arthur Bembury, Executive Director