In the summer of 2005, Mile High United Way and the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships called together mentoring organizations providing services to youth in metro Denver to have conversations about their work.

Agencies identified mutual challenges and needs in the mentoring community and decided to formalize a partnership to promote increased communication and cooperation among the youth mentoring organizations serving the Denver area.

In major part the Youth Mentoring Collaborative (YMC) looks to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas. Increased discourse will enable the establishment of best practice standards. Possible outcomes of information sharing include enhanced cultivation of volunteers, the adoption of more effectual organizational procedures, and the development of valuable data collection and evaluation systems.