Vermont Business Magazine MENTOR Vermont is excited to announce the start of the 2019-2020 Vermont Mentoring Grants application process. These annual grants are designed to support new and existing youth mentoring programs in Vermont that match adult volunteers as mentors for youth mentees (ages 5-22) in long-term, one-to-one, quality-based mentoring relationships.
The Vermont Mentoring Grants have traditionally been made possible through support from the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Vermont Department for Children and Families. During the 2018-2019 grant year, MENTOR Vermont and its funding partners awarded 31 grants, totaling more than $300,000, to support more than 100 new and existing mentoring program sites, and more than 1,750 adult-to-youth mentor pairs in communities across Vermont.
Potential applicants should contact MENTOR Vermont at [email protected] to express an intent to apply. Applications are due by August 9. For more information about the grant guidelines, and how to apply, please visit www.mentorvt.org/vermont-mentoring-grants.
This year’s grants are designed to fund one-to-one adult-to-youth mentoring programs serving youth in Vermont which operate at least 25 weeks of programming a year and whose matches meet at minimum one hour a week or four hours a month (depending on program model). This includes: the first-year implementation of new mentoring programs; the growth of new programs in their second year of implementation; the expansion of established programs to serve more youth or expand into underserved areas; and ongoing support for established mentoring programs that meet best practices.
All successful 2019-2020 grantees will commit to participating in the Vermont K-12 Mentoring Initiative by collaborating with MENTOR Vermont and other programs in their region to ensure that the youth they serve have the opportunity to continue meeting with their mentors through high school graduation. Programs that serve middle and high school mentees will commit to providing support and resources to youth and their mentors to help them explore post-secondary and career opportunities, and track their mentees’ high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment rates.
Additionally, grantees will demonstrate they are meeting best practices through the Quality Mentoring System (a program assessment system developed by MENTOR Vermont and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership), and commit to tracking and evaluating their program data through a Results-Based Accountability (RBA) process. Lastly, all funded programs will continue to use common questions from the Vermont Mentoring Surveys to survey their mentors and mentees, and track youth outcome data in the following key areas: resiliency; pro-social skills; future aspirations; connectedness to community; match/program feedback; and the mentor’s involvement in the mentee’s education.
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. National studies by MENTOR and Big Brothers Big Sisters demonstrate that youth with mentors are less likely to engage in risky behavior with drugs and alcohol, and they are more likely to develop positive relationships with peers and adults and pursue college and other post-secondary opportunities. Based on the 2018 Vermont Mentoring Surveys, nearly 72 percent of middle and high school youth supported by mentoring programs in Vermont feel like they matter to people in their community, and more than 88 percent of mentors play a direct role in their mentee’s education.
About MENTOR Vermont: MENTOR Vermont (formerly known as Mobius) supports 140 adult-to-youth mentoring program sites that serve 2,300 mentor pairs throughout the state. In addition to managing the Vermont Mentoring Grants, the organization provides technical support to mentoring program staff, maintains an online program directory and referral system for volunteers, manages a quality-based program management database, raises public awareness of mentoring, works with programs to ensure they are meeting best practices, and leads statewide mentoring initiatives. For more information about mentoring programs and initiatives in Vermont, visit www.mentorvt.org.
Source: Burlington, VT—MENTOR