The Kettering Foundation’s Dayton Democracy Fellowship is a one-year program that supports innovative leaders, changemakers, and dreamers who are building movements for inclusive democracy in their communities and in our wider world. This series of articles about the Dayton Democracy Fellows highlights their robust work and the powerful narratives that drive the advancement and defense of democracy. 

For Kettering Foundation Dayton Democracy Fellow Jessica Bloomingdale, democracy involves giving power to the people and instilling them with the confidence they need to make a difference. 

Bloomingdale works as the project director of The Mentoring Collaborative of Montgomery County, part of Sinclair Community College. Rather than provide mentoring directly, the organization supports more than 50 partner agencies that operate mentoring programs throughout the county. Mentoring needs best practices and training to do it most effectively, and that’s where The Mentoring Collaborative comes in. “We provide training . . . in the elements of effective practices for mentoring. We provide a lot of resources and help [organizations] find others,” Bloomingdale said. “It’s kind of like the teaching-the-man-how-to-fish concept, rather than fishing for them. We do a whole training for the organizations that mentor.” 

Mentoring programs run from preschool to college. Peer mentors, and high school students who mentor elementary pupils, can be extremely powerful as well, she said. 

The Mentoring Collaborative provides advice and guidance to larger organizations, such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and to smaller programs at churches and nonprofits. By serving as the “mentor” to mentoring programs, The Mentoring Collaborative fulfills the vision of its founder, Sinclair College trustee and community leader John Moore Sr., who believed that many problems such as rising dropout rates could be solved through mentoring. Moore served on its board for many years until his passing in 2021 at 97. 

Annual surveys conducted by the organization have revealed a disturbing trend: a lack of parent involvement in their children’s activities. Their disengagement can sometimes hinder the effectiveness of mentoring programs. To address this issue, Bloomingdale has been helping fellow Dayton Democracy Fellow Keisha Anderson implement Parent Cafés, which are local support groups led by parents. Anderson decided to use the grant provided to her as a Dayton Democracy Fellow to implement Parent Cafés. Bloomingdale also contributed her stipend to the endeavor, and together they have become a team, empowering parents to better support their children. 

“Parenting can feel so isolating. Too many times, parents are told that they’re not important, [that] their children are what’s important. But that’s just not true. The parents are the foundation of the success of the kids, so we need to pour support into them first,” she said. 

“It all helps to improve democracy. We’re not registering people to vote or work in the polls, but we’re helping to give these people agency over their own lives. Democracy, at its very basic level, is giving power to the people—and this is what we’re doing. We’re giving power to these parents . . . or, more precisely, they already have the power. We’re just unleashing it and showing them that they have it inside them already.” 

Bloomingdale believes that helping parents gain confidence will help children as well. She is married with three children and has seen the impact of Parent Cafés firsthand. “I am floored at how connected I feel to these [parents] that I’m training,” she said. “I find myself thinking, ‘I need this, even though this is just part of my job.’ I’m just excited to see where it goes.” 

Bloomingdale believes the Dayton Democracy Fellowship and its network will also help her efforts. 

“We are all connected in some way. I had someone come into my office who was asking about housing and tenants’ rights, and I said, ‘One of my other fellows can help you with that.’ And so it’s not just the connections and the community that we’re building. We were given the space to get together and share the work we’re doing and support each other.” 

By creating a space for these conversations and connections, Bloomingdale believes more people will become involved in democracy, too. “We’re showing [the people of Montgomery County] that they can make a difference in their sphere of influence. They matter. They matter in their neighborhoods, they matter in their cities, they matter in their state,” said Bloomingdale. 

Maura Casey is a former editorial writer for the New York Times and has worked with the Kettering Foundation since 2010.

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation Dayton Democracy Fellowship is a one-year program designed to support innovative leaders, changemakers, and dreamers who are building movements for inclusive democracy in their communities and in our wider world.