Mobius to Convene Inaugural Vermont Mentoring Symposium at Vermont Technical
College on April 5
Randolph, VT—Mobius is excited to announce that it will convene the
inaugural Vermont Mentoring Symposium at Vermont Technical College on
Tuesday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This statewide event, held in
recognition of National Volunteer Month, will bring together staff and board
members from adult-to-youth mentoring programs across Vermont for a day of
networking and professional development. Presenters will include facilitator
Jennifer Stanchfield, M.S., of Experiential Tools, and Hal Cohen, Secretary
of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, as well as a variety of mentoring
practitioners.
“The Symposium will be a unique opportunity for Vermont mentoring
professionals to gather in person and share their knowledge and experience
with one another,” said Chad Butt, executive director of Mobius. “We hope
that everyone who attends will come away with new ideas for supporting youth
and mentors in their local communities.”
The theme of the Symposium is “Inspiring and Maintaining Mentoring Relationships.” The event will begin with opening remarks by Secretary Cohen, followed by a group activity facilitated by Stanchfield. Attendees will then be invited to participate in a series of workshops on a variety of topics including program sustainability, volunteer recruitment, adolescent transition, and public relations and social media. Additionally, there will be a lunch and networking hour, and the Symposium will conclude with a mentor and mentee panel.
The Vermont Mentoring Symposium was planned and organized by Mobius’
Program Leadership Council, an advisory group comprised of elected
representatives from mentoring programs across the state that advises and
assists the organization with its various mentoring initiatives. Mobius is
hosting the event in April in celebration of National Volunteer Month, to
call attention to the need for more volunteers to support the more than
15,000 youth (ages 5-22) in Vermont who are in strong need of a mentor.
About Mentoring: According to the “Mentoring Effect,” a study released in
2014 by MENTOR (The National Mentoring Partnership), one in three youth in
Vermont will enter adulthood without having a formal or informal mentoring
relationship with a caring adult. Based on an abundance of national research,
having a mentor can enhance a young person’s learning skills and help him
or her build resiliency and pro-social skills. Youth with mentors are less
likely to engage in risky behavior with drugs and alcohol, and are more
likely to develop positive relationships with peers and adults, and to grow
up to become productive members of society.
About Mobius: Now in its fourth year as Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership,
Mobius supports more than 140 adult-to-youth mentoring program sites that
serve 2,300 mentor pairs throughout the state. In addition to convening the
Vermont Mentoring Symposium, Mobius also provides grant funding to mentoring
programs (around $330,000 for the 2015-2016 grant year), offers technical
support to program staff, maintains an online program directory and referral
system for volunteers, manages a quality-based program management database,
and works with programs to lead other statewide mentoring initiatives. For
more information about Mobius, and mentoring programs and initiatives in
Vermont, visit www.mobiusmentors.org.
United States