Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski Highlights Life-Saving Role of Youth Mentors
Vermont Business Magazine Mentoring advocates and youth mentoring program coordinators met last week to support the launch of MENTOR Vermont’s One Million for Mentoring campaign, urging Vermont lawmakers to provide increased funding for mentoring programs across the State.
Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, who has just returned from Manchester, England, where she received the “Young Politician of the Year” Award from One Young World, highlighted the important role mentors play in helping youth feel like they matter.
Rep. Small said, “You are the best tools, you are the best advocates when it comes to saving lives, and I don't mean that lightly. When youth have an adult who believes in them, who sees them wholly and authentically and is willing to stand up and support them. A trusted adult who understands the struggles that come along with life and to say, ‘I had struggles of my own and I made it here today as a thriving adult.’ That is what gives hope, which youth need very badly right now.”
Yet, mentor-mentee matches in Vermont are down by 35% since March 2020. With mental health needs for Vermont’s young people at crisis levels, and educators and parents seeking more social and emotional supports, mentoring is more important now than ever. As all Vermonters emerge from the last two plus years of isolation and process the trauma inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, young people are grappling with it amidst critically important developmental and transitional ages.
Chad Butt, the Executive Director of MENTOR Vermont, whose mission is to empower youth by providing support and resources to Vermont’s youth mentoring field, said, “Given the long-term effects of disconnection and trauma brought by this pandemic, we must move collectively to ensure young Vermonters have the supportive relationships they need to grow and thrive. Evidence shows youth who feel like they matter have improved academic, social and economic opportunities, and 91% of Vermont’s mentored youth reported, ‘My mentor makes me feel like I matter.’ Yet, state investment in mentoring has not increased since 2007 and due to limited public investment, access to mentoring programs is limited across the State.”
By increasing the quality and quantity of safe and effective youth-adult mentoring relationships in places where young people live, learn, connect, and play, MENTOR Vermont can help every young person feel like they matter.
To learn more and to join the One Million for Mentoring campaign click here.
About MENTOR Vermont: MENTOR Vermont aims to close the mentoring gap and drive equity through quality mentoring relationships so every young person in Vermont has the supportive relationships they need to grow and thrive. To achieve this vision, MENTOR Vermont provides funding, resources, and support to the youth mentoring field in Vermont to strengthen the quality and broaden the reach of mentoring relationships 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. MENTOR Vermont is the state affiliate of MENTOR National. For more information about mentoring programs and initiatives in Vermont, visit www.mentorvt.org.
MENTOR Vermont. Burlington – September 22, 2022
