Mentoring and Supporting Families Act
The Mentoring and Supporting Families Act would amend the Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG) program (Section 2008 of the Social Security Act) to explicitly require and encourage mentoring and coaching supports in demonstration projects. Specifically, the bill introduces a new subparagraph that gives preference in grant decisions to applications that include mentoring, peer support, and career coaching as part of the project’s case management plan, and that commit to providing a monthly cash stipend or wage supplement to participants. It also requires that project case management plans include career coaching (with optional peer support/mentoring) to help participants develop soft skills and social capital, integrated throughout pre-training, training, and post-training phases as part of a career pathway model. The changes would take effect October 1, 2025.
Key Points
- 1Creates grant-selection preference for proposals that include mentoring or peer support and make career coaching available, and for those that provide a monthly stipend or wage supplement to participants.
- 2Requires HPOG projects to include career coaching in their case management plans, with the option to offer peer support and mentoring to build soft skills and social capital; supports ongoing services before, during, and after initial training as part of a career pathway.
- 3Reindexes the statutory subsections to insert the new subsection (c) after (b), redesignating existing subsections (c) and (d) as (d) and (e).
- 4Effective date set for October 1, 2025.
- 5Applies specifically to demonstration projects under the Health Profession Opportunity Grant program.